Resurgent civilization
by Startraveler93
Summary: What happens when a Prothean plan to steal the citadel brings it to another races home world? Will this species develop differently?
1. Chapter 1

Resurgent civilizations

Author's note: This is my first fanfiction, I had many stories I wanted to write since two years ago and only know did I thought it was a good idea to start. I decided to start with one of my best ideas for this, since it something I have yet to read in other fanfictions. I hope you like it.

Prologue part 1

Cycles upon cycles they came, they destroyed countless civilizations, consumed they're works of art, achievements and the very essence of the peoples they consumed, and know it was the turn of the great Prothean empire, although a small brave group of warriors were in a desperate mission to ensure that the cycle would break.

...

Flying through the stars in front of a blue sun the last remains of the last great Prothean fleet were gathered, after centuries of war only a handful of worlds remained all of them being attacked by the reapers, and it was known that the war would be over in a matter in a matter of months maybe weeks leading to the end of another cycle and the preparing for a new one. Most of the Prothean resistance was coordinated in the remaining planets now without contact with others, and most of the Prothean fleet had been wiped out in the remaining years of the war with remnants of different fleets scattered amongst the stars until they received a signal telling them to gather here under the avatar of hope Qalem Eminal, the message was sent through the beacons of each ships so the reapers could not track it.

All that remained were 5 cruisers, 26 frigates and 38 corvettes, has well has as 52 unarmed civilian and merchant vessels, and towering over them all was the Penumbra Apex, the last dreadnought, and the flagship of the Prothean empire, 1,5km long. It had managed to survive the centuries of war through prioritizations of it has a high priority weapon since it was about one of the few that could damage a reaper capital ship, since then it had been upgraded with a particle canon, similar to collector vessels, which could actually destroy a reaper capital ship with a few shots from it, although it still wasn't has effective has the main weapons of a reaper capital ship. They moved to the relay to star they're last defiance of the reapers.

…

Qalem watched has the last ships of is people moved to what would likely be they're last battle. "How fitting that the Penumbra Apex will be the one to lead this battle", he said to the crew on the bridge, which they responded with pride "Aye, long live the empire". This did not surprise Qalem; even beaten they were still proud to be Prothean, even in desperation they had managed to develop particle weapon, most importantly they managed override the safety programs of their ftl drives, which prevented a ship to enter ftl if an object was detected in its way which came from the technology of the inusannon, long thought to have been created by them, now it was certain it came from the reapers has a way to prevent civilian ships of being used has weapon against them. And finally although they did not manage to replicate a relay like the legendary Ilos installation, had been trying to do, they had managed to create a device which they could send through a relay so it would attach itself to the relay it just connected in order reverse the mass effect field of the opposite relay to drag the origin relay to the receiving relay's system, it was called "The Rope", it had been developed through the finding and study of the reaper's main relay, which served has a backup in case the citadel didn't function. Unfortunately these advances came too late to stop the invasion, although they would be crucial for the plan to succeed.

The fleet started moving towards the main relay which they would use to get to the citadel, which according to they're scouts was guarded by 10 capital ships, and 25 destroyers, small compared to most battlefields since the war was almost over the reapers saw no need to guard it with a larger force, fatal mistakes on they're part.

This plan was made after the crucible had been destroyed by indoctrinated servants, which were indoctrinated to believe it was better to control the reapers rather than destroying them, fortunately they were unable to inform the invaders of the crucible existence has such the reapers weren't aware of its continued existence has such the plans had been guarded in a secret location that even Qalem wasn't aware of.

The plan was to use the main relay to attack the reapers by surprise, and then destroy them, use the citadel master control to vent from it the hundreds of thousands of husks which were guarding its corridors and then navigate the citadel back to this system and then once again use the system to travel a select primitive race's homer world and then hide it in its vicinity along with the main relay which would be dragged away with the Rope in order to prevent the reapers from following they're location, this strategy was done so that the reapers would divert most of their forces out of the remaining Prothean worlds and hopefully allow the secret bunkers to escape undetected with they're occupants in stasis, even if that didn't work then hopefully earlier access to the citadel would drive which primitive species discovered it to develop far more quickly than before.

Has the fleet approached the relay Qalem, once again look at each ship and each of is officers and soldiers, most if any of them wouldn't survive this battle. And then the relay shone has they implemented the commands to the citadel, the relay shone and has ribbons of energy enveloped each ship propelling them to they're destiny.

Author's note: So how did you like the first part of the prologue? You probably know which species will inherit the citadel.


	2. Chapter 2

Resurgent civilization Prologue part 2

Author's note: So finally, stealing the citadel, hope you liked the first chapter.

…...

The fleet of 119 ships arrived, in the nebula; the ships immediately took formation and proceeded towards the citadel.

"Ensign, tell all other ships to fallow stay in the nebula behind the Penumbra Apex, we want to stay has hidden has long has possible." said Qalem.

"Yes sir" the ensign responded.

The tension was visible on the bridge, every crewman just focusing on their tasks until the citadel the shining citadel appeared has if it was a tube of light. The crew suddenly was loud with dumbstruck awes has all of the crewman saw the citadel, they were all born during the war centuries after the loss of the citadel therefore none of them had ever seen it in person, only in pictures or video clips, this place of legend was a marvel to behold: "And we are here to take", thought Qalem even he was awestruck by this defying piece of technology, the ancient seat of they're empire. "Alright back to work gazing upon it won't bring closer to victory once we conquer it there will be plenty of time to see it up close", and with that everyone returned to they're tasks.

Finally has they saw they're enemy although due to the nebula they hadn't seen them, to is surprise there were only 10 destroyers and 5 capital ships, "Were are the other reapers who were supposed to be here" said Qalem. "They must be the ones who arrived on edonu sir two days ago, they must have left right after our scouts did", said a young woman, a communications expert.

-"Edonu, that's commander Javik planet", said the ensign.

-"The reapers must have learned the existence of the bunker", said the coms expert.

-"They must have had indoctrinated spies in their mists, maybe when we take this station they will come back here and follow us, we are fighting for them" said Qalem. "At least this will be much easier. Prepare the VIs on the civilian transports and their ftl, I want to hit them before they have time to raise they're mass effect fields.

"They are ready sir, coordinates for the enemy were sent to the VIs".

"Then launch two for each destroyer, and three for each capital ship, and as soon as they go send the corvettes, frigates and fighters to swarm what remains while cruisers and us will offer support. Understood?"

"Yes sir",

"Do it now", said Qalem.

And in space 35 of the 52 civilian transports light up and vanished into a flash of light, and second later they collide, at speeds too fast for the naked eye to see, right into the unsuspecting reapers going right through them, and rendering 8 of the 10 destroyers and 2 of 5 capital ships nonfunctional has they're broken husks started pouring debris, and they're husks crews into the nebula. While the other reapers successfully managed to bring up they're kinetic barriers, although those of the two destroyers ended drained causing some moderate damage on them, while one of the capital ships ended up with its barriers drained and one of the transports went directly for its lower base renderings its main weapon offline. In all only two capital ships managed to survive without damage although with they're barriers at medium capacity.

Has soon has this happened the frigates, and corvettes escorted by hundreds of fighters immediately rushed in fallowed by the cruisers with the Penumbra Apex in their center, with the Protheans sheering at the sight of such a spectacular result.

Although the sheers were short lived, has two capital ships followed by 10 destroyers emerged from the nebula.

"Sir, enemy reinforcements, from the nebula"

"I see them", Qalem wasn't expecting this, if he had a conventional fleet and more cruisers he knew what he would since it took either a cruiser or at least a fighter squadron to bring down a destroyer and even then with difficulty, and at least four dreadnoughts to make strain in the kinetic barriers of capital ships. However they're new ship mounted weapons would make the tasks easier and the Penumbra Apex was they're best dreadnought after all. He knew this was all or nothing, so he made a risky call.

"Order the entire fleet, except two squadrons, to attack the reinforcements with cruisers focusing on a destroyer each; with three squadron of fighter supporting them and 16 corvettes, the last remaining five squadrons, corvettes and frigates are to attack the capital ships. And send all of the remaining 12 civilian transports in ftl, one for each of them. As for the two squadrons not participating, they are to accompany us against the already weakened forces.", he said gravely.

"But sir, both groups will be obliterated, we can't stand with only two fighter squadrons of 24 ships each against, 3 capital ships and 2 destroyers and the rest of the fleet can't stand without the Penumbra Apex", said the tactical officer with shock.

"The transports will weaken they're barriers, giving the main force a better chance. Has for us, two of the destroyers have they're barriers down and are already damaged, our fighter should have no difficulty bring them down with us, however our main fire should go to the damaged dreadnought since its main weapon is online if we can bring them down we should be able to face the two remaining capital ships with a chance of success, now go for our people", he said. "For our people", the entire fleet exclaimed.

…

And forward the fleet spilt and attacked, once again the remaining civilian went into ftl and collided with they're intended quarry although this time the reapers kinetic barriers held, since they were at full power this time only reducing to half that of the destroyers, and to a third that of the capital ships, and then the main force engaged while the fighter of Apex nebula concentrated on the two damaged destroyers, one quickly fell before a direct hit from the Apex particle weapon, while the other managed a hit on its starboard bow, cutting through it, although it was forced to defend against the fighters, which allowed the Apex to finish it up with its low yielding particle canons.

The fighters deviated an went straight for the damaged capital ships with the Apex, although it managed to several fighters with its ant fighter system, also using them against the Apex causing strain on its kinetic barriers.

After a few minutes of concentrated shots, it finally several secondary explosions started until it exploded.

…

"Bridge of the apex"

"Commander, the main battle group has destroyed six destroyers, and reports that one of the capital ships has broken off its attack and its headed towards the two others in front of us", the strategic officer said. "What's the status of those two?" he said. "They seem to be remaining close to the presidium, they're shields appeared to be fully recharged, but they don't seem interested in engaging, and the other one is joining them."

"Why? They could overwhelm us, why don't do they?"

"Unknown, they appear to be waiting. Sir shall we engage them?"

"No, let's region the main force, after that we will face them together.

…

The Apex rejoined its brothers and sisters, against the remaining three destroyers and the final capital ship, all off which had they're barriers down, after half an hour they were destroyed, with the Apex six squadrons, all five cruisers, nineteen frigates and 22 corvettes. They gathered for their offence against, the remaining reapers however has soon as they approached, a large metallic tube emerged from under the citadel tube, which one of the reapers took inside it then they retreated.

After that a strike team was sent inside the citadel tower which used the citadel master control unit from the hundreds of thousands of husks guarding it.

The ships docked, the citadel was closed, and moved with the reapers already in pursuit.

…

8 Hours later

Citadel chamber

"What did they took", said the tactical officer.

"According to our scientist, who have begun analyzing the hidden section it was a ha blue box, Paru"

"A blue box of that size would mean a very advanced AI, maybe the entity controlling them", said Paru.

"Indeed", said the young coms officer Maru. "But know we are almost at the alpha relay, in which species solar system are we going to hide the citadel".

"Thessia", said the ensign Jimo. "We had already begun they're uplift even before the war, they can stop this cycle"

"Possibly", replied Qalem. "However the reapers know it and they have been monitoring the system".

"The Turians then or Krogan?" said Malu.

"They're systems, are too close to the previous location of the citadel", said Jimo "the salarians?"

"The frog, people who eat flies, doubtful they will ever reach spaceflight" said his sister Malu with humor.

"We need a system, that the reapers have already closed, were our presence was negligible enough to barely be noticed", said Paru.

"In that case that leaves the humans and quarians." said Malu,

"The Quarians seem to be quick learners, and they seem pretty thought" said Jimo.

"Unfortunately they're immune systems are too reliant on similar environments on their homeworld", replied Qalem. "Both of these are adaptable, however the humans have been shown be unpredictable, with a lot of diversity, they don't know how they will progress intelligently, maybe they can confuse our enemies?"

A great deal was though about this in the end the alpha relay was programed for the sol system. When the Prothean fleet arrived, they closed the citadel and hid inside Jupiter in its gas which filled the atmosphere, they then used the rope, take alpha relay to sol and used it to leave to what would be known has Eden Prime, to help they're brethren. And has they left the alpha relay, slumbered and so did the citadel in the sol system.

…

Author's note: So to clarify this will take place later in the mass effect universe, but the events and people will appear has always.


	3. Ch 1 A great discovery

Chapter 1

A great discovery

Author notes: So the citadel ends up in sol. This story will take place centuries after the mass effect timeline, so humanity will encounter the council centuries after they find the citadel. During which they will encounter a few species, before the council.

But right now let's see how they find the citadel.

…

Timeline:

50000 BCE: The citadel was stolen, although the reapers were able to recover the catalyst, along with the alpha relay and hidden it in the sol system.

The reapers search for both of them, diverting a colossal amount of their forces in this task, they even build new relays to other systems in the skyllian verge and the Omega and Perseus veil regions of the Terminus systems, the regions they suspect the Protheans took the citadel, significantly expanding the mass relay network.

This action diverts an enormous amount of forces, from the remaining handful of Prothean worlds, since they no longer the means to pose a threat to the reapers, even though the remnant fleet is wiped out, they're distraction of the citadel allowed the surviving Protheans better time to fake the destruction of their bunkers, although at a great cost of life, for example on the planet of the avatar Javik, the VI Victory, used a neutron bombardment to eliminate husks forces, and destroy most of the bunker, killing 998 800, of the one million sleeping people inside, and damaging the awakening mechanisms, therefore they wouldn't be able to be awaken automatically, only by visiting races of the next cycle.

The status of the other bunkers remains unknown.

49 500 BCE: After five centuries, of searching the reapers decide to use an alternate solution, they make second alpha relay, and then leave since they were unable to build another citadel for the simple fact they already used most of their materials in new relays and needed the rest for the next cycle and consumed too much energy to remain active and search for the citadel. They needed that energy to make the trip back to their hibernating location in dark space, and then order sovereign to activate the citadel so they could come through.

They started their journey back although, in a twist of fate, Prothean scientists from Ilos, arrive on the citadel through the conduit. They had seen through the beacons a message explaining their brethren's plan to distort the reapers plan, which had led decided to come to the citadel sabotage it so the keepers wouldn't respond to Sovereign's signal. They then used a ship to fly to the alpha relay, and hide in the sol asteroid belt were they predicted it would likely be encased in ice like the other sol relay.

When sovereign attempted to activate the citadel, the Citadel didn't respond. When this happened, the reapers concluded it must have been destroyed, due to misinformation deliberately left behind by the Protheans.

Although the reapers were not a hundred percent sure of this they had already been searching for five centuries and consumed all technology and resources of this cycle, if they wanted to have enough energy to survive hibernation in dark space they could not afford any more delays. Plus even if the citadel was intact and discovered by another species the central power of the next cycle would be drawn to the serpent nebula due to its strategic location and easy access through the mass relay network. At worst if the citadel had survived it would become the home of another civilization wish the reapers could still overwhelm through their vast numbers and technology.

So the reapers went back to dark space, leaving the next cycle to develop, with what they saw has a minor inconvenience.

580 CE: The Asari develop faster than light technology based on a beacon the Protheans left behind, although this detail is covered up in order to preserve the illusion of this development, has well has other advancements, being an accomplishment due the Asari skills which would create respect in case of an encounter with another species has well being able to maintain themselves on top, has an advanced species. They discover the serpent nebula, and establish a small trading outpost due to its strategic position.

520 CE: The Salarians make first contact with the Asari in the nebula, and open diplomatic relations.

520-0 CE: The Asari propose a joint control of the serpent nebula, they both build a space station each, a full 2 km long and in their center a joint station called the hub, 3 km long, were would rule the galactic council.

1 CE: Rachni wars: the Rachni a species of highly intelligent insects are discovered by a Salarian survey team opening a dormant relay. Leading to a 3 century long war.

80 CE: Krogan uplift.

300 CE: Rachni extinction.

700 CE: Krogan rebellions and first contact with Turians.

800 CE: Krogan rebellions ends and the Council conventions are made.

900 CE: Turians join the council. Building their own station.

1000 CE: It's decided to connect the hub to the three stations surrounding it. Through a series of advanced resistant space made corridors, connecting each individual station to the hub, and three other curved ones connecting the each station to each other in an enormous 16km circle, with the hub has its center. This construct is named the citadel, due to its role has being his earth of the galactic community, and it's considered the greatest technological creation second only to the Mass Relays.

1895 CE: The Quarian-Geth, war occurs. The Quarians are driven from they're homerwold, by the Geth. As punishment their embassies is revoked and they are forced to live has nomads.

January 2019 CE: A strange mysterious cylinder like object is seen emerging from Jupiter's atmosphere, through an observatory in Lisbon. The EU informs the UN. Leading to a new space race, through the changes of the planned missions to mars, which the EU had been confident they would have a working prototype by 2021 while the US expected to have their own 2032, with Russia 2035 and China 2031. Full funding is offered for the mission to Jupiter, leading to better development of the prototypes, when it was clear that the EU would have the first ready to go ship by 2025, the EU offered an olive branch for each of these countries to offer a specialist along with the 28 EU crew members, as symbolic jester of unity, has well for Canada, India, Brazil, and Japan to do the same. As well as a contingent, of 28 armed EU soldiers has a precaution against dangers in the object. With this show of good faith, these countries start founding to the EU space project seeing the need to reach the object as quickly as possible has a result the vessel is set to reach conclusion in 2022.

February 18 2022: The spaceship "Unity" is ready and launched in orbit, due to its size, with its crew of 53, and is set to arrive to the object in 3 months.

April 18 2022: The Unity arrives at the object.

…..

"Alright people", said captain Beaupain a French woman in her middle 30s in charge of the mission. "Steady has she goes. Birk and Renner, any changes?" she said looking at the dark skinned British woman and the brown haired Austrian man, both pilots and piloting the ship.

"The object doesn't appear be doing anything other than keeping itself rotating" said Birk.

This caused a worried look in Commander Baum, the German Special Forces officer in charge of the mixed security detachment for this mission, has well has is subordinates lieutenants, Lopes a young man from Portugal and lieutenant Laine a young woman from Finland.

"I hope it does something already then, I would prefer to know what exactly are we dealing with here", said Baum.

"Remember Commander, if we manage to enter whatever this is, I don't want weapons raised unless there absolute confirmation that there's any danger at all." she said strictly.

"Yes captain, I never intended to. There is no confirmation that this thing is hostile or not and to be honest I don't intend to give it reason to be", he said politely with a smile.

"Thank you" she replied herself smiling, she couldn't stop thinking about how Commander Baum and his mixed unit had been a very pleasant surprise to what she expected, she had though that he would have been the cliché of the stern paranoid trigger happy commander. But to her pleasant surprise he hand is entire unit were the exact opposite, despite being clearly elite fighters they didn't seem to see fighting as anything that should be enjoyed or encouraged, seeing it more as a last resource method, and they were pretty cult and polite, and commander Baum had accepted her has he's superior without a fuss, since this was a civilian operation therefore she was in command, as result a good friendship had developed between the two since the day they got on board this giant tube surrounded by solar panels, both had expressed how 3 years ago they had been worried about how they were asked to form their own teams for this trip, the EU parliament had insisted on people from each of the 28 countries for both, "they must have really wanted this ship to reflect its name", she though. Has a result both she and Baum had to choose people to fill the roles they would need and each had to come from a different country, they chose the best they could find and had them work together for three years. The crew worked well together, they were scientist, and many of them were religious, she herself was a catholic, and so they often had common goal to discover the world that God created, or in this case worlds.

Has for Baum he hand is unit had the most difficulty, adjusting since they had different training, the same basic rule, but different conduits, a lot of them were religious as well. So Baum asked for a combination of the training of all the EU countries including the British SS. He's soldiers soon learned all there was to know about each different training; according to rumors they had even surpassed the British Special Forces, the best in the world. Despite of that they had integrated the crew perfectly and got along quite well with the civilians, and they seemed as eager as the civilians to get to the object, mostly because they needed something else to do than pushups, even though the artificial gravity allowed such exercises its was still weaker than normal earth, and mostly they had genuine curiosity, this boredom had led to them being particularly friendly to their respective opposite sex, personally she though it was normal stuck in space for 3 months so as long as they were still good at their jobs, although Baum seemed to keep an ever watchful eye on interunit relationships, although he only seemed to want to keep himself informed about how each unit member interact with each and that affected their work together, he and is unit clearly trusted each other completely often having the same train of thought and she and the civilian were now part of that trust. As for the civilian they were experts from all fields, right into medicine.

And finally the foreign, representatives had also integrated themselves well, four of them were here in the command cabin, Ananyev the a Russian astrophysicist with a sense of humor, Davis an engineer from the US, Zoeong an computer expert, and doctor Hamasaki a young biologist from Japan in her early twenty's, with long black hair she kept in a ponytail, and was by far the most excited at idea of meeting an alien, a bit to cherry on occasion.

"Hope they aren't reading themselves for an invasion", said Davis.

"What why would they? It's been here for 3 years and it hasn't made anything that threatens earth its unlikely to be hostile", said Hamasaki with surprise.

"Maybe it's a scout, you know gathering information on us, how many forces we have, what resources we have, or what are our women like" said Davis has he looked at Hamasaki like he wasn't seeing the clothes in her body. To which her response was a look of half disgust half-threat, which made him shrink especially when he saw that Beaupain, Birk and Laine were giving them the same look, although he seemed particularly terrified of Lain, the Finnish woman may have been small but she was known to be strong.

"Doctor Hamasaki is right", said a calm lieutenant Lopes. "This does not match a scouting behavior, the whole point would be to learn more through discretion, not showing themselves in plain sight, plus why would an alien race want to harm us, the creation of such an artifact suggest they are capable of imagination and therefore emotions like compassion and love".

Hamasaki looked at Lopes a thankful look in her eyes, to which he nodded with a smile on her face and then turned without noticing her blush. "Yes, both Hamasaki and Lopes are right", said Ananyev "Plus according to your compatriots in Lisbon, Lopes, the object emerged from Jupiter's atmosphere, which suggest it was hidden there at least before the latter twentieth century, before we could detect incoming objects into or solar system".

"Why would it emerge from the atmosphere three years ago?" asked Beaupain.

"It was probably forced to, it probably sank little by little until the pressure, and gravitational and corrosive gases were reaching dangerous level and so it got out either before it suffered any damage or at least any significant damage", answered Ananyev.

"Which means" said Zoeong " that it either has a very advanced automated system capable of detecting threats and move the object to safety if necessary or…"

"There's someone inside", said both Commander Baum and Captain Beaupain.

"Well maybe they wanted some privacy and now they came out bored inviting us for some party", said Ananyev with a joking voice. The cabin echoed with laughter, "Wouldn't that be nice "said Beaupain.

"Everyone, eye, everyone the object is opening", said Renner.

Everyone stopped laughing, only to look in amazement how the giant metal cylinder opened like a flower, to reveal five arms covered each in cities, all linked to a central ring with a tower at its center. Beaupain looked at the camera monitor and saw that all of the crew had glued themselves to a window and were watching.

"Contact Command, tell them what happened and how to proceed, send the recorded image back to", she said to Renner.

…

Half an hour later

"It seems the UN council wants us to dock in this space station", said Beaupain.

"Couldn't that be seen has a sign of aggression", said Baum.

"They probably have already seen our ship isn't armed", said Zoeong. "Although it seems more likely to me that there isn't anyone inside, no other activity has been detected".

"Or they may simply be waiting for us to dock", said Ananyev. "See how we react."

"Either way we're not going to know until we dock, so were to?" said Beaupain.

"I think the central ring next to the tower, it seems to be the best place, the controls for this place will likely be located there which means if someone is here that's where they will be. And even if there isn't anyone inside, than it's a good place to start our exploration. Its central has only a tube connecting to the outer ring, and to the cities in the arms." said Baum.

"Yes excellent thinking Baum, there appears to be docking bays there, let's use them. Forward people", said Beaupain.

"There appears to type of docking bays captain, one closer to the tower which appears to be like an open port and another near the central ring, which appears to be a docking to be docking tubes", said Renner.

"Go for the airlock then, it will keep us further from the tower but it's better than the open space", said Beaupain. "How long to the tower from there?"

"The metallic corridor linking the circle to the tower appears to be 7 km long", responded Renner.

"Well at least our bodyguards will have something else to do than pushups and secret meetings in other crewmembers cabins" said Beaupain to Baum with a smile. To which he smiled back, did Lopes and Laine, they were looking for a good walk.

…

The Unity drifted slowly, into the center of the structure passing through the five arms with the crew contemplating each of the buildings covering their surface, until finally it reaching the ring and docking its own airlock with the citadels.

…

The airlock opened, to a dark room wish was semi illuminated by the flashlights in the rifles of Commander Baum, and lieutenants Lopes and Layne, has well has those carried by Captain Beaupain, and other 5 crew members, all in space suits.

"Gravity confirmed", said Davis.

"Good, I still can't see a thing", said Lopes. "At least were in a big room."

"It kind of remind an airport terminal", said Hamasaki.

"Alright try to find a console, a switch or anything, but don't touch anything until were sure it's only for turning on the lights," said Beaupain.

They spread across the room although most staying relatively close to each other. Doctor Hamasaki wander off a few meters further from the group her curiosity driving her forward until she saw what appeared to be some kind of virtual console appear out of nowhere in her right.

"I think I've found…" she said when she felt something bump into her making her fall to the ground. She is the ground and heard an insect like noise; she turned her back only and pointed only to find an ant like head less than a meter from her.

She screamed, surprised and terrified, and ran back blindly and was only stopped by Lopes, who grabbed her by the waist to calm her.

"What is it, what's wrong?", he said in a worried voice.

"A creature just bumped into me there", she pointed at the spot.

Lopes and everyone else turned they're lights on the spot and saw with astonishment the green bug, half the size of a human, with short mandible, black eyes it had four arms with hands of two fingers and a thumb and wearing what appeared to be some kind of orange jacket with an electronic pack on its back. The creature simply stood there staring at them barely moving at all, the same for the human visitor who couldn't believe they were seeing a real live alien.

Hamasaki was the first to talk," Now that I see it, it's actually kind of cute", then she looked at lieutenant Lopes and realized she may have been holding unto him a bit too long and decided to let go with a blush.

"Greetings, we are humans" said Beaupain, while pointing at all of them. "We came to meet you", although she was certain the creature wouldn't understand a word of what she was saying, it was good to transmit the impressions that they were trying to communicate.

The creature simply continued to stare in front of itself has if it hadn't heard a word.

"Maybe its deaf" suggested Zoeong.

" There are other ways to communicate", said Lopes while he approached the insect with a book note and a pencil and started drawing a human and a representation of the bug holding hands, "Peace" he said "Friendship". Again nothing.

"Try with whistle, maybe it only hears in subsonic frequencies" suggested Davis. They used Baum's whistle but the result was the same.

"Wait I want to try something, everyone get out of its way", suggested Lopes.

They did and immediately the creature walked straight to the console and started typing, a few seconds later the lights lit up revealing the enormous docking bay, revealing other creatures passing by and activating other consoles even through windows on upper levels which light up in turn, they then looked the the viewing window showing the station's arms and they saw building after building light up.

"Captain" said Birk through the radio, "Command wants to know what is happening, the telescopes on Earth have seen the station light up"

"Tell them we have just been greeted by the stations inhabitants" said Beaupain, not believing what she was seeing.

…

3 hours later: After confirming there was no immediate danger the rest of the researchers were summoned as well all, but two, of the Special Forces security. The first they attempted other means of communicating with the creatures, or at least get their attention. All met without success, at first it was though that the creatures didn't even realize they were there, but since they stopped when the team members blocked them or simply moved around them it was considered unlikely. Their only interest seemed to activate the station and doing other tasks the expedition had yet to understand, when they attempted to physically grab one to see if they reacted it simply shut down and melted, much to the team's horror. After that it was forbidden to attempt to physically restrain them.

Afterword while half the expedition analyzed and secured the port to make sure a long stay was safe the rest took the elevators and descended in what they speculated was the way to the tower, to find that the way had a giant lake running across, with occasional spots of earth although no vegetation.

The group proceeded through it with delight at being in an open space. At the same time analyzing what they saw, they're geologist concluding that the earth once had grass plants, and trees but where for some reason removed.

Hamasaki however seemed depressed, something Lopes seemed to notice. "Are you alright Doctor Hamasaki? You seem down." he said with worry on is voice.

"I'm fine, it's just I feel bad about the alien who died", she said. At the mention of this everyone took a disturbed face, even though it was an accident a lot of them felt bad about the poor thing.

"There was no way of knowing it would self-destruct if we attempted to communicate physically", he said although he seemed to feel guilt regarding the matter.

"It's just I didn't want such a thing to happen on a first contact" she replied.

"No one wanted for that to happen, unfortunately we are in uncharted waters, there is no way to know what lies ahead for us, all we can do is go forward and learn from our mistakes."

She smiled at that, Lopes was right at least they wouldn't physically assault any more aliens. "What intrigues me is why are they not responding to us, they almost seem like robots just focusing on their task, they even ignore each other unless working together", said Lopes.

"Yes they appear to be solely dedicated to maintaining this station" said Beaupain.

"Indeed, I almost think their lack of individual behavior and single focus on a task means these creatures are bio-engineered" said Hamasaki.

"Although I agree there may be some genetic manipulation involved due to them biologically melting, there may also be another possibility" said Zoeong a serious look on his face "there may also be another possibility".

"Which is?" said Baum.

"They may be a race enslaved and modified to maintain this station, even if they were made in labs that would still make them slaves".

Silence followed. "Why do you think that?" said Ananyev.

"Those who made this station were clearly advanced but however they must have had their limits, creating a species from scratch seems like a colossal challenge, seems simpler to take an already existent one and repurpose it." This troubled the entire group, could theses technicians and builders be slaves of some race, seemed likely since they didn't seem interest in the station other than keeping it running, showing no sign of free will.

"Why are they only fully activating this station, now that we arrived? Why not as soon as they emerged from Jupiter's atmosphere", said Ananyev.

"Well they seemed to prioritize the sections were we've been, they seem to want to make the station ready for our use. Almost like servants surprised about the sudden arrival of their master and starting to make everything ready for them" answered Hamasaki "They must introduce new comers to the station's systems."

"How considerate of them, if I could I'd buy them a drink to thank them if I could" said Baum.

"Shouldn't we try to free them from this servitude to this station?" said Hamasaki.

"That will be a decision for the people back home, to decide, and only after we have more information, we still don't know anything for certain. Although personally I agree, these creatures should be free" said Beaupain. "By the way, that reminds what should we call them? Since you had the pleasure of being the first to meeting one doctor Hamasaki. You should be the one to name them"

Hamasaki stayed silent for a moment than said: "Keepers, we'll call them Keepers."

"Seems appropriate enough", said Beaupain.

They finally reached the base of the tower, it's impressive building rising right into the vacuum of space. As they approached it they saw a strange structure near it in a support above the water. The structure was sleek, with two rings in its center.

"What do you think this is?" said Ananyev who had gotten close to it on a small bridge.

"Maybe some kind of monument" said one of historians present, an Italian. "Maybe a representation of a symbol, or that of a device."

"Does anyone else hear that hum?" said Layne. "It seems to be coming from the structure".

Everyone stopped and listen only to hear the barely noticeable sound. "Maybe it's actually a device itself", she said.

"Let's just get onto the elevator to the tower, we may find answers there" said Beaupain.

They all got up on the elevators, and watched the view contemplating the entire station, and finally arriving at the top, finding an enormous chambers which they quickly climbed its stair were they found a podium, with what appeared to be a hearing platform standing above a big hole leading to another room, with an empty spot in the other side of the hole there was an empty space which appeared to be a central position who seemed to be central to the room.

"This place kind of looks like a government chamber, like the UN council chamber in New York" said Baum.

"Indeed do you think we may have stumbled on the seat of power of some civilization, or a gathering place for several?" said Beaupain.

"Possibly, although why would it be abandoned then?" responded Baum.

"Maybe they are extinct, or maybe they lost this station somehow", suggested Davis.

"Whatever the reason, we need at least to know what exactly they were so we can now what to expect if they come back, said Baum.

Hamasaki looked at Lopes and saw that he seemed concerned "What is it lieutenant" she asked.

He looked at her with surprise and then answered: "Nothing, doctor no need to worry. I'm probably just overthinking this", he said.

"Well tell us anyway it's important to say what you think we may be overlocking something" she said.

"It's just the positioning of the platform" he said. "It's exposed allowing for the people who would probably be in the stands up there to watch, and the other side there seems to be central and higher than the platform. It looks almost like someone wanted to transmit the idea of being superior to whoever stands in this platform and to an audience." he said. "Basically if this is a sort of a UN, then it doesn't seem like an equalitarian one, more like a civilization or several presiding over another".

This made the others think about it. "How to you know so much about this" asked Hamasaki?

"I've always been fascinated by history, anyway maybe I am exaggerating has far has we know they could simply have other view of representing their faiths, ideals and concepts", he said.

"That reminds me this is a nice spot for the flags" said Beaupain with a smile, to witch Baum looked at is men and said

"Bring out the flags and call everyone else up here."

Indeed they had been filming everything since they had come here and had brought some flags in simple miniature metallic supports, one for each nation.

They installed them in clear view in the higher level with the platform, and sent the images they had been recorded to command on Earth so it could be played to the world news. The UN did it has soon as possible; the people on Earth had been tense since the mission had begun, and they wanted something to calm the population.

After 2 hours of airing the images on Earth, during which time the rest of the crew had arrived and they had finished installing the flags, they all took positions near the respective flags, except for Beaupain and Baum who were in the center under the EU flag and under another flag which was above all of the other flags, and made precisely for this occasion, a white flag with a map of earth on it. Then it was confirmed, they were live from Earth they all said:

"A Quest for all mankind to share, may we all be one", they then smiled and it was over. They then proceeded to explaining in detail what they had seen so far.

…

Author's note: Hope this landing was good. By the way Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.


	4. Chapter 2 A Long forgotten mystery

Chapter 2

A long forgotten mystery

Author's note: Well I was considering jumping forward in the timeline, but that would make the citadel findings a little impersonal. Warn me if you prefer I skip ahead. I apologize for my grammar; I will try to do better in the future.

By the way, I meant to put a little codex at the end of the last chapter but I wanted to post it quick so I forgot. So I will give it to you know to show some difference of the galactic community without the Citadel.

…

Codex:

The Citadel: In 922 CE after the completion of their respective station in the serpent nebula, the Turians suggested that all stations be connected with each other; with the hub has its center, due to the fact that separate stations were more difficult to defend. The Asari and Salarians, agreed due to the fact that such a project would stabilized trade in the nebula, and also since they remembered the well the Rachni wars, and Krogan rebellions and how the nebula would have fallen if both enemies had managed to actually reach it. Plus it would solidify the council's power and authority, being in control of an actual major installation rather than a collection of small ones. This project started in 950 CE, and by 1010 CE, the stations were all connected to each other, through a series of enormous space habitats, forming construct which they named the citadel, after the legend of the mysterious Prothean capital which was supposedly the serpent nebula according to archeological discoveries and data discs, it was 6km long then. In 1560, the central habitats connecting each station to the hub were expanded in order to form a single massive habitat, filled with apartments and parks with a lake in the center, all covered by a cone shaped dome with the citadel tower at its center in the middle of the lake, leading to the council chamber which would be located at the top of the dome overlooking the entire station from space, the Presidium was born. The council then further expanded the outer reaches of the station, 1820 CE, in order to allow more civilians, not just the elite of galaxy, to take up residence and establish business on the citadel, further reinforcing trade.

This expansion took the form of an enormous ring surrounding the presidium. From its contact point with the Presidium to its docks, the ring is 5km long, growing the citadel a further 10km.

Theses expansions over the centuries have costs the council races trillions of credits, and the continued maintenance of the citadel continues to cost in the billions.

The Citadel is home to 3, 6 million people, and maintains the council fleet has well has several guardian laser covering the key points of its structure.

The citadel Council: The council was formed, between the Asari and Salarians, to oversee the relations between species. Before the Rachni wars the council had difficulty being taken seriously, due to its control of only a handful of stations. Only during the conflict did most governments rely on the council's leadership to counter the threat.

The council was able to maintain this influence with the building of the citadel, which allowed them gaining more influence over the galaxy as a symbol of union between the council races, and the main route between the mass relays.

However the Council has often considered the acquisition of Omega, the biggest known Prothean construct, to fill this role of seat of power. Unfortunately negotiations with the leadership of Omega never led anywhere due to its ever changing leaders through constant conflict. No to mention an invasion would risk a war with the Terminus systems, leading to a great cost of life. And moving Omega to the serpent Nebula and renovate it would be too expensive.

…

Five days later.

On Earth the filming of the ceremony which each crewmember holding hands, presented the detailed presentation of the ring's zones they had already explored, has well has the tower, which they decided to end it with a view of the entire station through one of the windows of the tower's top chamber. This caused relief in the population, since there didn't seem to be any immediate threat, and the peaceful appearance of the Keepers.

Since then the crew had proceeded to explore the central ring and the tower, although small teams were sent to investigate the stations arms. Which were reported to be each cities, whose size remembered big cities such has Honk Kong and Singapore, each had several apartments. Several crewmembers had asked they could take up residence, however Beaupain and Baum had declined due to them being too far from the docks, instead insisting to set up base camp in the tower, due to its central position and easy access to its own docking bays, which is why the unity was moved to the towers docking bay. Doctor Zoeong and Ananyev and a couple of soldiers had gotten a scare when they got out of the elevator leading to the tower's docking bays and found out open space, thinking they had entered a vacuum.

To their astonishment, and especially relief, nothing happened. Only when Ananyev threw a chocolate bar to the stars did they notice the chocolate go through a force field. As a result the Unity landed without any complication and base camp was set in the tower's main chamber, where the Hydroponics team stated to use the spots of earth for planting, since the station was livable they had to plan for a long term stay.

Their engineers were attempting to find where the main controls for the station were but so far without much success, Davis was particularly frustrated by this.

"Were would an alien species put the controls for their home", he said with deep breath to no one but himself.

"Trouble?" said Lopes coming up behind him.

"Yes, I Just can't figure out were in this giant tube, would the controls to fly this station be.

"Have you tried, asking anyone who visited the arms?"

"Yes, but apart from apartments, streets and districts they haven't found any trace of it, not that we know what it would looked like anyway.", he replied. "Plus it would take us years, even decades with our current team to explore even one of the arms let alone the entire stations and you saw how much it costs just to bring us here."

"Yes, I know and if we could find the controls, we could fly this thing into earth orbit and it would make the exploration a lot cheaper and faster." Said the young man, "just make sure you people don't crash on Earth", he remarked with worry on its voice.

"That's why, were probably going to spend years learning how to fly it before we even attempt to put it in Earth's orbit.", said a voice behind them. The two man turned, startled, only to find captain Beaupain walking towards them.

"Don't worry lieutenant, the UN council doesn't want flying this this unless were absolutely sure we can park it. Now is there something you need or are just making conversation with Davis?"

"It's about two things; first we've discovered some strange device, in one of the tower's middle levels."

"A device, what kind of device?" said Davis with a fascinated look in is eyes.

"I'm not sure, its slightly taller than a normal man, it looks like a pillar, its pulsating with some kind of green energy, has well as having some kind of green fog emanating from it. The commander wanted me to request Davis's help, as that of Zoeong, , since it kind of stands out from the technology of the station."

"You mean it could be from another race? "replied Beaupain with eyes wide open.

"Either that or some kind of specialized technology, anyway Baum wants specialists on sight to determine that, with care of course", he looked at some of the engineers who almost seemed to be foaming at the idea of seeing the object.

"And the second", excited.

Lopes became more serious "We were exploring the levels under the tower, using the maps you retrieve from the keeper consoles. We found a corridor that doesn't appear to be on the maps. We simply wanted your permission to divert more of our men to explore it, and if you could burrow ore it us Hamasaki just in case we find something interesting."

Beaupain looked at him with a look of suspicion on her face; it was obvious that he wasn't telling the whole truth. "Very well, I'll send them to Baum".

"Thank you, where are Hamasaki, Ananyev and Zoeong?"

"They're at the base of the tower", said Davis.

"Thank you." Lopes started going down the stairs to the elevator, when Beaupain followed and asked in a quiet voice: "What's really going on in the hidden section lieutenant? Why do you need more armed men and Hamasaki?"

Lopes looked kept walking and quietly answered: "It's probably nothing, captain. Baum just doesn't want to alarm anyone."

She thought that was strange. Baum had never used but small groups to secure the different sections, what could be so important it needed a larger force and Hamasaki specifically. "Why would there be any reason for alarm?"

"Don't tell this to anyone but when we arrived at the entrance there was some kind of smell, a very foul smell coming out from it"

"What kind of smell"

"Like if there was something rotting, like bodies"

She got a look of chock at that. "You think there may be something alive down there?"

"Possibly, although it could also be toxins, that's why we will be using gas masks and requested Hamasaki, to know what we're dealing with."

"Very well go get Hamasaki and Zoeong then". She said has they got to the entrance of the elevator. Lopes proceeded in it and touched the console. The elevator went down, Lopes contemplating the magnificent view outside, while thinking how this expedition had been doing well thus far, they hadn't had to fire a single shot, and the rest of the crew were keeping themselves busy.

The ones who seemed to have the less to do were Birk and Renner, aside from making sure the ship was not parked and receiving orders from command they didn't have a lot to do, they would often get turns to get off the ship and simply help explore or just watch what others were doing.

Has the elevator reached its destination Lopes, stepped out and saw Masaki kneeled over a Keeper working on a console, using what appeared to be a miniature microscope near its neck, although she seemed careful not to touch.

"How's your date doing, is he a talker? A nice guy? Or just pretty boy?" he said jokingly.

She turned with a smile on her face, "So far he is the quiet concentrated type, dedicated to his work, probably a family, but cute. Although he doesn't appear to turn his head much, which is kind of becoming offensive?"

"Maybe I can compensate you with another meal"

She smiled at that; they had shared a meal together in the main chamber the first day they arrived, since then they had gotten close, although each of their specific tasks had kept them busy since then.

"I'd love that, how about we have ear near the lake"

"Perfect it's a date then. By the way, where are Zoeong and Ananyev? We need all of you three."

"They are near that monument." She pointed to the key like object. "Ananyev thinks he has found something and as dragged Zoeong to check it out"

They both walked towards them, walking beside half a dozen people wo were all busy with their respective tasks.

Near the structure, lieutenant Laine and Renner were observing Ananyev and Zoeong tweaking with something they couldn't see.

"Zoeong I need you to come with me we found some kind of device and we could use you".

"With pleasure", the man said with annoyance on his face has he walked away from the object. "This thing is getting nowhere".

"It's not by giving up you'll find out what it does", said the irritated voice of Ananyev.

"What exactly has both of you in such a bad mood?" asked Hamasaki.

"I've found a small device attached to the object", he said showing what appeared to be a small cube like object, pulsating with green lights. "It appears to have been placed here; it doesn't appear of the structure."

"It kind of looks like the same kind technology of the device we just found remarked" remarked Lopes with astonishment.

"What device?" asked Ananyev?

"I'll explain on the way, now come on."

Ananyev obeyed and released the device, which then started to glow. Followed by the rings in the structure starting to spin, with a enormous orb of blue light appearing in their center and starting to shine.

"What's happening", stated Laine in an alarmed voice.

"I don't know" stated an open mouth Ananyev" but it doesn't seem to be done", he said has the rings started to spine uncontrollably, so fast they could barely follow them with their gazes.

"EVERYONE BACK" screamed Laine "IT MAY BLOW".

Everyone started to run away, however has soon has Laine, Renner, Ananyev, Hamasaki and Lopes, started to get away from it, a flash of light then ribbons of energy enveloped them and they were propelled upwards, unknowingly into space.

…

"THEY DISAPPEARED, HOW EXACLY", said a rather furious Baum.

It had been 10 minutes since the incident, and he and Beaupain had been debriefing everyone who had been present at the time the object showed activity. Baum and Beaupain had ordered everyone to stay an away from the object, which was now being guarded by 12 armed men and women, who were careful to keep their distance.

A panicked Zoeong responded "Like I already said some kind of energy envelope and they appeared to be catapulted upward into the ceiling."

Everyone looked instinctively up in fear of seeing their comrades splashed, although Zoeong was quick to say "Don't worry; we already checked they are not there". A sign of relief followed.

"Were could they have gone", asked Beaupain.

"Maybe they were simply sent somewhere else on the station." Said a worried looking Davis.

"If they had they would have radioed in, by now", said Baum. "What did the object do afterward?"

"After it propelled them the rings slowed down but remained spinning for about 2 minutes, and then the whole thing shut down." responded Zoeong.

"Maybe it sent them somewhere, further" suggested an hesitant Davis.

"Are you suggesting to another planet", said Beaupain "that would be impossible"

"Since we also considered impossible a station of this size, I'm willing to take that bet", said a hopeful Baum.

"But Commander, if they did it a lot of things could have gone wrong, they could have been sent to a world without atmosphere, or the machine could have malfunctioned after millennia in here" said a visibly preoccupied Davis.

"I won't accept that, this station seems to have been working fine for more than a millennia at least, I think it's unlikely this thing would be the one to break down", although he meant what he said he knew that Davis had a very valid concern, he couldn't afford the others to think the worst. Something Beaupain seemed to share.

"Very well let's assume for a moment they arrived safely at their destination, how we get them back?" she asked.

"I don't know, has far has we know this device, may be a one way trip. I only found a few controls in the device, and Ananyev was the one who activated it. I wouldn't know where to start", said Zoeong.

"Besides, according to you people the device had a glowed like a small sun. This suggests massive amounts of energy, maybe nuclear or even particle acceleration. I wouldn't recommend shooting anything at it Commander" said Davis.

"Thank you for your suggestion but even then I've ordered C4 to be placed on it"

"What why?"

"In case something hostile decides to come through it, we're not taking any chance; in the meantime no one is getting near that thing. Unfortunately for now at least, our comrades will have to find their way home on their own. Now everyone to your tasks"

Beaupain approached and said to him discreetly, "Don't worry; I'm sure they are fine."

"Lieutenant Lopes and Laine are amongst the finest officers in the world, if there's any danger I'm confident they can protect them. However I wonder how they would find a way to get by, even if they found the controls its unlikely they would understand them. At least Ananyev is a pretty quick learner, maybe he will figure it out" he said a hopeful look on his face"

"We'll just have to pray to God for their safe return.

Who knows maybe they will meet the builders of this station and they will send them back to us."

This made Baum pale "I honestly hope they don't meet them, Beaupain."

Beaupain looked at him with a worried look; something was making Baum and is men and women very nervous. At first she had though it was only because of the loss of their comrades, but then she, and a lot of others, had noticed they seemed considerably more nervous since they had entered the hidden section. They had been griping their weapon more tightly and seemed more alert.

"Why?"

"Captain, there is something you should see. Please follow me"

They marched towards the stairs near the lake to the lower levels. On the way passing some engineers analyzing a elevator, with an armed woman at they're side. She saw that even the shatter amongst them was short and they appeared to more calm, the excitement no longer present.

Apparently the incident had reminded everyone of dangers that could be hidden in the station, and were therefore prudent.

After a full twelve minutes of walking, they finally arrived to the now famous hidden section; she saw five men and women guarding it, all using gas masks to her surprise.

"Why are they using masks?" she asked when she was suddenly struck by the most hideous smell she had ever smelled, she instinctively covered her nose.

"It makes it easier for them to be alert", he said with a somber look.

"Lopes said it smelled like something rotting."

"Prepare yourself Beaupain, it's not good" he said with worry.

They walked inside, and then Beaupain gasped in horror with what she saw.

"Oh my God.

What monsters would do this?" she asked still unable to grasp what she was seeing.

"Either a very cruel ones, or simply just cold and heartless one".

…

Hamasaki opened her eyes, felt blurry for a minute and then saw the sky, a red clouded sky, and then saw that she was lying with her back to what appeared to be an enormous dry root, she immediately saw it ran several hundred meters to her right into what appeared to be old ruins and then disappeared out of sight. How could a plant grow to be so big?

She then noticed, doctor Ananyev still unconscious beside her, both were sharing a small blanket.

"Glad to see you're awake" said a smiling Laine.

"What happened?" she asked in a weak voice.

"Well, the machines sent us flying into the air remember that?"

Hamasaki nodded positively, she remembered a bright light and sensation of being of going so fast that she foot she had been shot from a canon.

"We then fell here, quite violently, me and Lopes landed on land so that was particularly unpleasant, you hit your head in the root so, leaving a concussion, we had to bandage it"

Only when she said it did Hamasaki notice the bandage on her forehead.

"Don't worry it wasn't serious, just a booboo", she said smiling jokingly.

"What about Ananyev" asked Hamasaki with suddenly worried by the man still sleeping.

"The poor man landed head first in the water there" she pointed at an enormous pond "it isn't deep but since fell in head first he fainted, and almost drowned, I had to use mouth to mouth to make sure there wasn't any water in his longs"

"And what a pleasant experience that was", said a smiling Ananyev who had just opened his eyes. "Really lieutenant, I didn't know a man in my forties could still capture the heart and love of a young woman in her twenties" he said jokingly.

Laine smiled, "Well you know how the brave heroes have always to save the damsels in distress".

Ananyev's smile just went wider has he said, "Touché". Then he looked at his surroundings asked a lot more serious. "Where are we, what is this place?"

"Believe it or not we think we were sent to an alien planet."

Hamasaki had a hard time believing it. "What makes you think that"

"The sky is different, the temperature is pretty hot, the air seems lighter than normal and not to mention the gravity seems a bit lighter. Oh and yes, the giant plants and the ruins of the alien city in front of us kind of give that impression"

"What happened to the device" asked Ananyev.

"It shut down after a few minutes. We dragged you both to it and attempted to be sucked back into it. But nothing happened, not even when we tried to jump up and down"

Both looked at her with a look of amusement. To which Laine responded, "don't look it was me, it was Renner's idea. He thought that maybe some sort of impulse was needed to send us back. Anyway the device simply shut down, and we couldn't find a way to reactivate it"

"By the way, were Lopes and Renner?" asked Renner.

"They went to scout ahead; we needed to know what was around here so he took Renner with him in case they found some controls for the device. Let's wait and see what they find."

Hamasaki got up, she didn't want just to stay lying down and wait, and instead started to use her equipment, fortunately her case had been dragged along with them, and started analyzing has best has she could the environment around her. In case they wouldn't be able to get home she needed to determine whether they could survive here.

Half an hour later the heard the sound of splash coming, from up the canal leading to the ruins, only to find Renner and Lopes coming down, they're feet in the water.

"His everyone okay" asked Lopes.

"We are fine, a little headache but it'll pass." responded Hamasaki. "Have you found something?"

"We followed the canal, which still goes up for quite a will until we saw what appears to be an enormous complex, like some kind of bunker"

"Not to mention it was pretty hard walk, and we also had to climb amongst the ruble since some of the section seemed to have decayed over time." said Renner while he massaged his legs. "What about you found something interesting?"

Hamasaki started to relate her finds, "Well the water appears to be drinkable, has long has we boil it eliminate contaminants it should be fine.

The plants don't appear to contain any toxins, so they appear to be edible, in case we run out of provisions, although I can't promise they will taste good."

"Why all this silence?" asked Ananyev. "Have you noticed that aside from water, there isn't the sound of a single animal or insects?"

"There doesn't appear to be any wildlife here", said Hamasaki. "The burned down roots, the buildings and all this vegetation suggest some kind of devastation by unknown means happened here. This has increased the levels of oxygen, which would be perfect for wildfires, so wildlife appears to be extinct. At least on this region, I can't say for sure if the entire planet is the same."

"At least we'll be eating healthy" said Lopes.

"The best thing would be to stay here and wait for the others to come and get us", said Renner.

"That could take too long." stated Ananyev. "I'm not even sure how I activated that thing, and I doubt they will be reckless and start tempering with it. If we want to get back we should move to the bunker you found and hope we find some instructions on how to operate this thing"

"Ananyev right", exclaimed Lain. "Besides they won't send anyone through unless they are sure they can come back"

"I don't think we have much choice anyway" said Lopes. "Do you smell that?"

"Yes" said Laine.

"What?" said a worried Davis?

"Try placing yourselves downwind" said Laine.

They complied and put themselves in the same direction has the two soldiers, and then they smelled the smell of burning wood.

"Seems one of wildfires Hamasaki mentioned is coming our way. We will be safe in the bunker" said hastily Lopes. "Let's move quickly"

And so they started their march into the canal, in hopes of reaching the bunker in time.

…

Citadel hidden

Beaupain watched in the room, now light with lights powered by portable generators, the Keepers cleaning and injecting some sort of grey liquid in syringes, in the corpses of the dead aliens. There were what most have been thousands of them, all thrown about in the room, most in piles. Most of the bodies were in decay, they're flesh falling apart although a few were still in good condition, that she could have sworn they had died a few minutes ago. She could see that the creatures were green, reptilian like and had four big yellow eyes; some of them even wore some kind of armor although most appeared to be in formal or ragtag clothing. But what was the most distressing were the little ones, children.

They had notified all of the crew of this and the chock had been instantaneous, some had even fully vomited has soon as they had entered the room. Nevertheless they a begun investigating the room, and had notified the UN council which had decided to keep the information secret for the time being, in fear of mass panic, until they had more information. Apparently several military forces had discreetly gone to a state of alert.

Beaupain had ordered to take one of the syringes from one of the Keepers, which self-destructed, in order to study the liquid inside. They had determined it wasn't a fluid at all but yes some form of advanced nanobots, with the purpose of apparently maintaining the bodies in good condition. Although apparently the Keepers hadn't been able to keep them all in good condition, due to the quantity.

Has she walked she got out of the room, much to her relief, to a vast room were the walls were moving with the occasional bolt of energy jumping between them. Zoeong this was some kind of vast and incredibly complex computer matrix. She then walked up the ramp to what appeared to what they though was some kind of control room with a view to the entire station, they had installed their own monitors so they could use the place has a command center.

She nodded to Baum who now looking at one of the monitors. "Any news?"

"No, we still have no idea what's the purpose of all this abomination."

Yes, they had followed the tubes in the other chamber and followed them to an even bigger chamber, were they found something understood. She looked at the monitor, and saw the giant skeleton formed machine in the shape of the aliens they found.

"God protect our people from whatever built this thing, in whatever world they may be."

…

Ilos

It had been 3 hours since they had begun their walk towards the bunker, although they had to make a few brakes, since Hamasaki, Ananyev and Renner didn't have Laine's and Lopes stamina. But despite of this they were making good time. In fact they had finished one, when Ananyev said: "Sorry for taking you here." Regret dripping from every word. "If I hadn't been careless, we wouldn't be stuck here."

"No one blames you", said Hamasaki with compassion. "There was no way to know that we would be magically be teleported to another planet, plus like you yourselves said if there was a way here then there a way back."

He smiled. "We'll at least all of you and I can now brag to have been the first humans to a set foot on another planet, a habitable one, and formerly inhabited planet at that."

They all smiled at that, at least he could a bright side to all this.

"Besides, he continued, this looks like the beginning of a joke."

"How so" asked Lain.

"A Russian, a Finnish, a Japanese, a Portuguese and an Austrian land on an alien planet. What do they do?"

"What do they do?"

"I haven't figured it out yet" he said smiling.

"Were here", said Lopes has they saw the entrance to the bunker.

They got in and continued through its root covered corridors, until they arrived to a massive open section with the walls on both sides filled with metallic cylinders. Hamasaki climbed near one and managed to see it was filled with dust, specifically bone dust.

"So whoever was in there is long gone?" asked Renner.

"Yes, although it's unclear if this was a burial chamber, or if they were supposed to be in stasis."

"Maybe one of these guys" said Renner looking at some strange statues, representing creatures with what appeared to be fragile limbs, and most striking, tentacles coming out of their faces.

"Pretty creepy" said Laine

However soon has Hamasaki got down, a wall of bright yellow and white light appeared in front of them.

"What is this" said Laine has she and Lopes pointed they're weapons at the barriers.

Renner took a rock and threw it at the barrier which bounced back; he then approached and touched it.

"It's not harmful; it's just like a wall. Some kind of security system maybe?" he said.

"In that case we should go back", said Lopes however has soon as they turned a second one appeared in front of them.

"Seems it doesn't want us leaving", stated an alarmed Ananyev.

Then they saw a door on their right open, revealing what appeared to be an old elevator.

"Whoever here seems to want us to get in there", said Hamasaki.

"Were not getting in" said Renner. "It could be a trap"

"Were already trapped" stated Lopes. "We have no choice, they probably could eliminate us if they wanted to, so it's unlikely they are getting to all this trouble just to execute us."

They got in, and the elevator closed and it went down carrying them even deeper in the complex. The elevator stopped and opened to a room, filled with the same pods they had seen before, with at its center a root coming down from a hole in the ceiling with a ray of light illuminating, the room. And right next to the root what appeared a computer console with a flickering light appearing and disappearing near it.

They approached it.

"You are not Prothean, but you are not machine either. This outcome was one of the many we had foreseen."

"What is this; could it be some kind of AI?"

"No I am an advanced non-organic analysis system, with personality imprints Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Ilos research facility. I am not sentient therefore not an artificial intelligence, but yes a virtual intelligence therefore I cannot learn beyond my basic parameters."

"So more like one of our modern AIs" stated Ananyev.

"My name is Vigil and I brought you here to stop a cycle that has been plaguing this galaxy for billions of years."

"Cycle what cycle" stated Lopes.

"The cycle of the machines. You see more than 50 000 years ago we Protheans found this world, Ilos, the homerwold of the Inusannon, the creatures in the statues you just saw."

They all nodded, remembering the statues.

"They had been extinct 50 000 years before us." That got a few looks of surprise from the group. "They and other races, of their cycle, used a technology based on an element called eezo, which can lighten the mass off objects, by reverse engineering this technology; we travelled through the mass relays."

"Mass Relays?" said Hamasaki with astonishment. "Are you talking about the device that brought us here?"

"The device that brought you here the conduit, was our attempt at reverse engineering the mass relay, they are the same construct but fifteen kilometers long and can carry ships through them.

We found them scattered through the galaxy, whole clusters of star systems to each other.

We travelled through and soon discovered the Citadel, the station you came from, in the main nexus point of the mass relay network. We made it the capital of our empire, and proceeded to conquer every organic species of our cycle."

"What that's horrible, you simply conquered anyone less advanced then you were" said a shocked Hamasaki.

"Yes we though the strongest species should rule, and we though such unity would bring a better defense against the threat that came afterward."

"What threat" asked Ananyev?

"The machines."

For good half an hour Vigil proceeded to explaining the Protheans and the machines that had ended their existence, their indoctrination, has well has the purpose of the citadel, and the Keepers, the why of it being in the sol system has well near Earth, and the existence of the Alpha relay and the sol relay. And especially the existence of Sovereign, being looking for citadel.

The teams face reflected their horror at this tale.

"How can we stop them" asked Laine.

"You must prevent Sovereign from ever reaching the Citadel and activate it, and explore its secrets and ours. Use what you find to prepare for the reapers arrival and end this cycle. Take this data disk it will allow control you control of the citadel, and take this second one, it contains instructions, on how to open the conduit and more detailed information about us and what you face."

"What about you" asked Renner?

"My energy reserves will last for another 150 years, I will still be here."

They ran back towards the conduit has quickly has they could. Then proceeded to analyses the data disk for the instructions. And activated the conduit, and then went strictly for it, disappearing in a flash of light.

…

Citadel

The conduit began to shone, and the 12 men and woman guarding raised their weapons, only to see their five missing companions emerge. They lowered their weapons, has both Laine and Lopes said "We need to see Beaupain and Baum urgently".

They were taken to the main chamber, were both groups relayed their findings to each other, and then to Earth.

…

Author's note: So how will Earth react.

PyroSolracIII: No the aliens the systems alliance meet won't be reskinned humans.

By the time they meet the council, they will already have enemies and allies.


	5. Chapter 3 Rebirth and Reclamation

Chapter 3

Author's note: Okay has promised I'm jumping forward in the timeline. Although I may have unintentional misled a few people has to how this story is going to take place. The reapers won't be the main threat, at least not directly in this story, for the reason you will see below.

Has for the setting like I said, the characters will be the same, but the story will take place after the time of the mass effect games. So some of the civilizations will change a bit after a few centuries.

Sorry for the delay but I have been busy with my exams, thank God that most of them went well. Plus I have started a second story, don't worry I'll prioritize this one while updating the other once in a while.

…

Timeline:

2022: Landing on the citadel, first contact with the keepers, discovery of Ilos and Vigil. When the expedition, reports their findings to the UN, an emergency session was held, the world leaders afraid with the news of a galactic extinction cycle.

It is decide to keep the information of the reapers, Vigil, Ilos, the uncompleted reaper within the citadel, the Citadel's true nature, and the fact that Sovereign was somewhere in the galaxy searching for it (alternating between periods of inactivity ) classified, in order to avoid a world panic.

Seeing that 21st century technology is no match for the reapers, it is decided to form a common defense initiative between the UN's member countries, with full disclosure on technology, intelligence, has well has combining all the nation's training in order to maximize efficiency. The result is that most forces merge into a single one under the command of the UN.

Also full funding is given to the space programs around the world which are merged into a single one under the direct control of the UN, in order to hasten the study of the Citadel, and the Prothean beacon found in its tower, Ilos, and the uncompleted reaper discovered within the Citadel. A mission to mars is also organized in order to discover the Prothean outpost on Mars which Vigil had given revealed it's to them in the hopes of finding any vital knowledge.

Plus a close watch is kept on AI research, in order to prevent the creation of one that is sentient, instead prioritizing on ways to counter them.

Has far has the common citizen is concerned, the citadel is a space station of unknown origin which was colonized by the Protheans who moved it for some unknown purpose.

2023: The expedition on the Citadel, after having spent a year training with Vigil's program which gave them control of the Citadel, are confident they can control the station. They are ordered to bring the station in orbit around Earth.

The citadel arrives, facilitating the arrival of research staff.

In the same year a few Prothean cargo vessels in the citadel arms are also found, and study of their drive cores and element zero reserves begins.

2025: An expedition arrives on Mars and the Prothean outpost, a few Prothean ships and a beacon are discovered in it.

The first element zero ships are developed, and with them the Alpha relay and Charon relay, the Alpha relay is quarantined and studied while an expedition are sent through the Charon relay, were the Arcturus system is discovered.

The UN is transformed into the systems alliance, with the Citadel has its seat of power, although the components which allow it to activate is capability has a mass relay are secretly disabled first, and begins the construction of a massive fleet, has well as the exploration of the mass relay network and the establishment of colonies.

2028: A power source is brought to Ilos to maintain Vigil, who had been given the Alliance information and technology, among them the indoctrination detection technology, which allowed research into ways of blocking it.

And revealed the existence of several Prothean installations and settlements in Alliance territory, facilitating the uncovering of Prothean technology.

It also facilitated the understandings of both beacons that were found on the Citadel and Mars. It explained the reasons beacons didn't work with humans was because the essence of a Prothean was required the information to be understood.

It is decided to study the reaper manufacturing section of the Citadel, in order to understand how the essence is transferred to a reaper, further study is continued on it when Vigil confirms it to be inactive due to the Protheans having been incompatible, therefore not it wasn't capable of indoctrination.

The hypernet, a wide scale galaxy network, is established requiring comm buoys to connect to other systems.

2036: Civil unrest emerges as conspiracy theorist begins to accuse the government of withholding mysterious alien technology. This difficult the alliance's research and is forced to tell the truth about the cycle.

At first panic erupts, but then the alliance announces the unlikelihood of sovereign finding them and that they had maybe have a century to prepare.

People start to prepare, some either by making bunkers, or studying whatever technology they could, recruitments rises.

In the same year biotics are discovered.

2039: Plans for the crucible are discovered. This instills hope that the threat will be vanquished. Unfortunately researchers do not know what the catalyst is.

Despite this construction begins quickly, and in a year it is completed. Although it is kept in a secret location, in order to prevent exposing to threats, and to be studied in the hopes of discovering the origins of the catalyst.

2042: It is discovered the Crucible is a power source, the work of countless civilizations bonded together. This allowed the Alliance to combine its knowledge of the citadel's reaper's power core, with its knowledge of the crucible, to considerably improve the eezo cores on alliance ships, allowing for lower consumption, better power distribution, stronger mass effect barriers and more kinetic force on ships weapons.

At the same time, rumors begin circulate the hypernet about a project "Camelot", which the Alliance dismisses as gossip.

2050: A mining vessel locking for eezo deposits detects the launch of a primitive satellite from an uncharted world. The alliance is informed and begins a discrete observation of the world. It is discovered to be named Turvess, and with a native species of avian beings, the Raloi. Its decided not to approach the Raloi, due to the fact that the alliance had never met another alien species, there was no way to know how the Raloi would be affected by a first contact. Instead deciding to discreetly study them until the right circumstance for first contact presents itself.

2055: The first particle weapons are developed from the data found on the Citadel beacon. They are mass produced, although projectile weapons remain widely used.

The first prototype conduits are made, its decided to produce them and place several on Earth and each colony, this will allow instant travel between worlds considerably facility trade between them, providing an instant means for evacuation in case of attack, or the instant arrival of reinforcements planet side. Unfortunately only frigates can be sent through the conduits; therefore theses advantage only work for ground operation. Even so it is considered a huge step in the construction of a mass relay.

A secret bunker is made on Ilos, as a safeguard from the coming invasion.

2058: An asteroid rich in element zero is detected heading for Turvess. The Raloi detect it and combine their resources to develop their first two space shuttles. They hope to reach the asteroid and deviate it with a massive explosion, although they're projections show that debris will still hit the surface of their homeworld it is considered an acceptable risk.

The shuttles are launched a day before the asteroids arrival but are soon faced with difficulty in landing in the asteroid. The Alliance is forced to reveal its existence by sending three ships of specialist, to help the struggling shuttles land. They come with massive torches which they plant on the asteroid to deviate it, and stabilize it further into the systems orbit.

The specialists bring the Raloi astronauts home and initiate official first contact from humanity. The Alliance informs the Raloi of the incoming invasion, the Raloi respond by destroying their space shuttles and satellites in the hope of appearing to be a pre-spaceflight species and be ignored by the reapers.

2060: Despite not wanting to fight, the Raloi allow the Alliance to build six underground bunkers in their homerwold, so that alliance refuges may take refuge in them in case the cycle comes.

2062: An alliance patrol disappears near uncharted space, the patrol sent after it discovered a massive 2 km long spaceship, which is immediately identified as being Sovereign.

The patrol immediately retreats, however Sovereign had managed to retrieve the location of the Citadel, and follows the ships into sol. Where it is surprised to see that alliance ships are more advanced than expected, despite this it inflict heavy casualties on the fleets defending the Citadel, but it suffers severe damage itself and is forced to retreat.

Sovereign concludes it can't reach the citadel without an army. It contacts Harbinger who orders the collectors to install a locking program in all the inactive mass relays who could lead to Alliance space, completely blocking any attempt at activating them, and completely isolating the alliance from the rest of the relay network.

When the alliance attempted to follow Sovereign through an unknown relay they discovered they weren't capable of activating it, it is believed this tactic is meant to trap the alliance, although in reality its purpose is to prevent the alliance to contact the council and the rest of the galactic community while Sovereign gathers an army to conquer human space.

The alliance decides to use to its advantage that Sovereign isn't aware of the conduit or Ilos, therefore sends a few conduits to habitable worlds out of the mass relay network and secretly builds colonies in them as refuges to allow expansion in systems not in the mass relay network, while speeding up the construction of its own relays.

2065: A mysterious ship flies in sub light into Alliance space, at first it is believed to be a reaper due to it emitting AI heuristics. However the team boarding the ship soon discovered it to be the last refuge of a species called Juloni. Who had been forced to download one billion their minds into a virtual world, stored into their ship run by an AI, in order to escape their world being obliterated by their star going supernova.

The Juloni petition the Alliance for asylum, in exchange for their technology. The Alliance is at first suspicious of the AI, but nevertheless accepts the offer. This restarts research into AI since people are astonished that an AI had taken care of one billion people for 8 thousand people.

The first AIs are developed and installed on ships although restraints are put in place to keep them under control.

2068: Sovereign contacts the Geth, engages their help to fight the Alliance, although it does not reveal the location of Alliance space in case they refuse. The majority of the Geth refuse seeing it as an heresy of their philosophy of free will for all life. Although a minority of almost 5% of them accept and depart with Sovereign.

An Alliance patrol discovers near its borders a derelict ship. The people who board the ship discover several eggs frozen in cryogenic suspension. The ship is towed back to Earth where the eggs are thawed out and hatched, giving birth to a unknown form of insect life.

At first they are believed to be non-intelligent but only a few hours after their birth the biggest one shows signs of attempting communication. A device, based Juloni technology, is made to allow direct communication through thoughts. It is discovered the insects are called Rachni, and they are the last of a species, which were in the past indoctrinated by the reapers in a war against other species.

The Alliance decides to give them one of the toxic worlds discovered with the conduits, and the queen is studied due to it claiming to having developed a resistance to indoctrination because of its genetic memory.

2076: The rachni thrive, and share their technology with the alliance. Rumors begin to circulate that they were asked to help in the mysterious project Camelot.

The hypernet is upraged with the rachni's communication technology, eliminating the need for comm buoys.

Sovereign contacts the Facinus, a group of Turian separtists on Menae, who want Menae to be an independent world. Sovereign promises advanced technology if they help it in its goal, they agree without knowing they were being indoctrinated. At the same time the collectors contact several criminal groups with propositions, of exchanging their technology for dozens of individuals several species for the following requirements: a dozen Batarians, Krogan, Turians, Salarians, Elcor with the most malleable genes possible, one perfect harvester specimen, a dozen Asari with either dormant or active Ardat-Yakshi condition, and a dozen pure Quarians.

The Batarians, Krogan, Turians, Salarians, Elcor and the harvester were delivered with little difficulty. The Quarians weren't delivered, since most groups didn't dare approach the migrant fleet and those who tried were all destroyed. Has for the Ardat-Yakshi, the collectors had specified they had to be from those living freely under the Asari's government surveillance, the collectors wanted to minimize the Asari republics response, since attacking one of the locations were the republics kept them would have likely caused a military response, these were the most difficult due to the surveillance placed on them.

2078: Sovereign and the Facinus group attack the Turian shipyards on Aephus, and still several hundred corvettes, frigates and cruisers and 2 dreadnoughts, and destroy the shipyards afterward. This sets the Hierarchy's military production back for several decades, having lost one of their main shipyards.

The Turian Hierarchy reports the attack as being from Facinus, but doesn't mention Sovereign's involvement in the hopes of capturing the vessel.

2080: The Alliance decides to use its recently developed stealth technology to explore a few of the relays near Ilos, since Sovereign wasn't aware of Ilos, although it's decided to open only a few relays. A system with a planet with a defunct weapon is discovered. The weapon helps project the flight plan of the projectile to a derelict reaper.

The Alliance decides to use a shielding system it developed against indoctrination to study it, and the weapon.

2082: A massive fleet of Geth, Turian, Collector and a massive ship are sighted near an inactive mass relay in the skyllian verge, moving the ancient quarian station of Haratar, through an inactive mass relay by an Elcor survey mission. The relay is identified as the relay 304.

2085: Shanxi is attacked by Sovereign and is army; although the planet was captured the majority of the population was successfully evacuated through the conduits, which then self-destructed. The alliance fleet then responded with overwhelming force, and was able to recapture the planet.

The alliance soldiers were shocked to discover; the variety of sovereign's forces, of geth, collectors, turians and especially the husks which were discovered to be clones of several subjects of malleable genes, with marauders, cannibal, harvesters and others.

This would start a war, during which Sovereign's forces would attack several worlds in an attempt to open a path to the citadel.

Despite having the advantage on the ground at first, due to the vast numbers of husks that were produced Sovereign's forces had difficulty matching the Alliance fleets, which outnumbered Sovereign's ships.

Plus the crucible's technology, combined with that of the recovered reapers, had allowed the alliance ships stronger barriers, and stronger weapons, since the kinetic weapons of a cruiser were able to easily destroy a geth or turian one, and those of a dreadnought were able to cut through any ships barriers with only Sovereign being able to survive a shot from those, it took two dreadnoughts to cause strain on Sovereign's shields. And they had equipped the ships with small scale prothean particle beams.

So it often required three geth or turian cruisers to take out an alliance cruiser with only a collector vessel being able to defeat one single handedly, although with difficulty, has for the dreadnoughts Sovereign's forces were only able to destroy one with overwhelming force, although this rarely happened since they were often escorted, or by using Sovereign or one of the turian dreadnoughts, although theses were often forced to retreat before an alliance one.

And finally carriers, during the war Sovereign discovered the concept of using carriers in space, the carriers often were able to overwhelm Sovereign fleets, especially since the bombers and fighters were also equipped particle weapons.

The Alliance faced difficulty at first with Sovereign's, Collectors, and Geth cyber-attacks and virus, forcing the Alliance personnel to unshackle on several occasion their ship's AI to counter them. The AIs, to everyone's relief, stayed loyal to their crews. Has a result AI mechs are developed to counter the overwhelming ground enemy forces.

Has a result of these difficulties Sovereign's forces been often outmatched in space, which forced them to resort to hit and run tactics?

2086: Sovereigns force begin to lose the advantage in ground battles, when the rachni join the conflict, they're overwhelming numbers providing good support for the alliance soldiers, and facilitating the construction of underground fortress, facilitating the colony's ground defenses.

The alliance decides to produce several stealth frigates and assemble them into groups called corsairs, whose mission is to assault Sovereign forces in covert strikes to obtain their tech, they are able to successfully capture several samples, amongst them a few Turian and Geth ships, and even a collector vessel and a turian dreadnought, although not before they were purged of data by their occupants.

Sovereign cloning facilities were primed targets for the alliance.

With most of its cloning facilities destroyed, Sovereign decides to equal the playing field.

It gathers sample from the rachni, and creates its own breeder, in Haratar, whose eggs are then taken from her so her offspring may be turned into ravagers. And upgrades the geth with reaper code, improving their performance in battle, then orders them to prepare a virus based on reaper code to infect the whole Geth collective, which would outnumber the Alliance fleet.

It then attacks the Raloi homerwold, in the hopes of using its population has husks, unaware of the Raloi's being in contact with the alliance.

The Raloi contact the Alliance which sends a combined fleet of Alliance and rachni vessels, driving the invaders of orbit and eliminating the ground forces with the help of the Raloi military.

After the battle, with their secret out, the raloi decide to join the war effort, petitioning the Alliance and Rachni for training in modern mass effect technology. The Alliance and rachni queens agree and transport raloi soldiers in their ships until the raloi can develop their own.

During the battle Alliance AIs were able to virtually capture a few Geth programs. Theses Geth purged most of their information from their memory but the AI were able to discover the location of Haratar, the Breeder and the plot to infect the Geth collective, although they were unable to know the location of Rannoch or anything more about the true geth. And that Sovereign decided to make a run for the Citadel with the forces and ships it had left, which were mostly geth.

The Alliance sees this has an opportunity to end the conflict, and uses it own research into the reaper code recovered from the derelict reaper to rewrite the virus.

Has soon has Sovereign and his fleet attack they are met with fierce resistance around Sol, meanwhile stealth ships carrying strikes teams of Alliance marines, AI and Rachni board the station, the AIs rewrite the reaper virus to infect the geth and turn them against Sovereign, the Collectors and the Facinus group.

Has a result Sovereign forces are caught between a cross fire and their lines break, the Facinus and collector vessels are completely wiped out, with a few escaping into ftl, while Sovereign his heavily damaged and is caught into Earth gravity, forcing it to crash into the Pyrenees, were the combined firepower from ships in orbit and ground forces brought it down, ending the 3 month long conflict.

Engineers and AIs are immediately sent into the wreckage to make sure it's inactive. They manage to find its central processor, or brain, and remove it, completely deactivating it. Although it is discovered that it contains Sovereign's mind and that the wreck itself contains the essence, genetic material and minds of billions of a species called the Nazara.

The Alliance asks the Juloni help in saving theses minds, and they make a virtual safe were the minds can be stored in a state of hibernation, while the genetic material is drained and preserved until they can find a way to restore them.

Has for Sovereign and his millions of geth programs, who purged their memories of any information about their technology or the galactic community (with a few exception), they were kept in virtual prisons completely isolated from any other network while each of them would be tried for their crimes, although none of them would be executed since the Alliance had abolished the death penalty.

Haratar was occupied and studied, although unfortunately the rachni Breeder escaped, when it was discovered she was a violent unstable copy, she stole a cargo vessel and flew into unknown space.

Has for the AIs they were granted citizenship for their service and loyalty in the war.

While the Alliance took the opportunity to salvage Sovereign, managing to salvage its main weapon, and its molten metal weapon.

Fascinated by the Turian ship designs of the Facinus group, it is decided to start adapting the design and combining it with the design of Alliance ships to form a new type of stealth ship, the project is called Normandy.

While the remains of the Facinus, Collector and the few geth heretics, who had been isolated from the geth network when the alliance released the virus, escaped through one of the inactive mass relays, which the collectors reactivated.

As soon as they got through the Collector and Geth vessels turn their weapons on the Facinus ships, destroying many of them, although a few of them manage to escape with faster than light jumps. The collector and geth vessels then separate and travel to unknown locations. This event was witnessed by an STG vessel, who informs the council.

With this information the turian hierarchy decides to reveal the existence of the mysterious vessel to the council, which accompanied the Facinus group.

The council is worried about this information, and the fact that the geth, Facinus and collectors vessels appeared heavily damaged when they came through the relay.

They decide to keep the mysterious vessel's existence classified, and to attempt to open a few of the relays the collectors had been seen tampering with. The attempts fail, and it is determined that most of the relays in the region are more recent, suggesting they were built during the time the Protheans disappeared, forming an extended network that stretch from the territory between the inner council space and attican traverse, to the Omega and Perseus Veil regions of the terminus systems. With the ones in the region of between inner council space and Attican traverse being closed.

These deactivated relays are called the closed network.

2088: It's decided to use bits of Sovereign to make more effective AIs, although the Alliance agrees it insists in watching them carefully. The first of these AIs show a great ability to fight reaper viral attack.

2090: Task force Aurora is assembled to study the reapers' origins.

2100: The Raloi build their first space station on the eezo rich asteroid which was deviated by the Alliance.

The Normandy SR1 is made, proving to be the fastest ship ever built with an a stealth system that allows it to make it completely invisible to reaper systems. It is decided to produce more of theses ships. Once again rumors about this technology being used for the mythical project Camelot rise.

2106: The first planetary canon, based on the one found near the derelict reaper, is made, able to shot a projectile across a system right through a capital ship. The Alliance intends to install several on Earth and her colonies, and to install a smaller version on dreadnoughts.

2110: A mysterious orb is found on an uncharted world by task force aurora. When it's brought back a few days later the people who brought it back attempt to murder the project leaders and blow the lab but are fortunately stopped.

It is a signal is detected from the artifact, similar to indoctrination but less sophisticated, the shielding system is established to block the signal.

2120: After investigation of the orb and the world it was found in task force aurora declares the existence of the leviathans.

They trace the signal to an uncharted aquatic world, and send a small team in the hopes of opening a dialogue with the Leviathans. Unfortunately the frigate is hit by an unknown form of EMP and it crashes on the ocean's surface were it lays floating.

A second team is sent, this time through a conduit, equipped with shielding to protect them from mind control. They discover the leviathans holding the first team hostage has servants. The team attempts to negotiate a dialogue, but the leviathans simply boast telling them their history of the reapers and then turning the first team against them, in the hopes of gaining new servants, seeing them as a lesser race.

The first team is disabled and shielded from the mind control; they then remove the orbs emitting the pulses, by sending them through the conduit, allowing for the landing of ships. The leviathans respond by attacking the ships, but they are defeated and flee into unknown regions.

The planet is quarantined in order to study anything the leviathans may have left, since the leviathan technology seems to be extremely advanced, maybe even more so than the reapers. Although the reapers are still a priority there is concern about what will happen when the cycle ends.

2135: The first mass relay is made, its only capable of sending ships a fifth of the distance a real relay can do, but it allows expansion in systems outside the mass relay network. Plus they are equipped with an IFF system, preventing reapers or enemy ships of using them, if a non-friendly ship tried to use them the relay would send it to its destination in an unstable mass effect field, shattering the ship.

Rumors circulate about the Alliance having found eggs in the leviathan's lair. The Alliance dismisses it as gossip.

The Alliance decides to bolster its forces by making use of the captured geth fleet. Alliance AIs and computer experts study the Geth programs and are soon able to replicate their own version although with a few differences: They were born sentient with Alliance AI algorithms included in them, essentially making them hybrids between geth and human Ai, and they were upgraded with the same reaper code the other geth had giving them even better performance then the other geth.

These Earth geth provide the Alliance with several new ships, and millions of troops and laborers, and with access to the Alliance's resources they are able to augment production in record time. Although like the AIs, they are educated in philosophy, sociology and religion to give them a sense of right and wrong and faith.

Normandy SR2 is made.

2142: The batarian Hegemony begins to take the children of batarian slaves as soon as they are born, this shocks and surprises the galactic community who are confused at why the Hegemony would do such a thing. All that it is known is that the newborns are taken into ships and then never seen again.

2150: The raloi develop their first frigates.

The Alliance develops their first pulse weapons based on the leviathan orbs, they are able to be fired on an entire area, or individual ships. They are in cities and other strategic locations, has well on cruisers and dreadnought, allow them to fire these pulse in a projectile form, or as emitting it as a wave to prevent reapers from grabbing them.

Secretly, Alliance intelligence develops a way to control husks at distances of a few hundred kilometers, it is tested on Sovereign's mind and it is controlled for a few hours. It is believed this technique will work on thousands of husks, and maybe a few reapers at a time. This information is kept secret amongst highest members of the government in order to surprise the reapers, even more secret is the how this method was made. It is known to be partially based on indoctrination, although the rest is classified.

The Alliance navy currently possess 3689 vessels with 52 dreadnoughts plus 3 of the Geth variety and 20 carriers.

The dreadnoughts, are now 3,2 km long having been upgraded with the planetary canon tech, and combined with Sovereign's main weapon and the crucible power generation systems is able to destroy a capital ships with one shot from Earth to Mars. And it has several 160 Thanix canons, with more range and strength than a capital ship has well has several Thanix missiles, has well has Javelin defenses.

For defense it possess several particle canons, a combination of the collector and Prothean variety, has well has several guardian lasers, gotten from the Geth. Both use ultraviolet frequencies, instead of the infrared, which now are used on every ship making them a lot more powerful.

Has well with a secondary pulse weapon, allow it to render enemy ships inactive.

Their kinetic barriers are able to take a direct hit from a capital ship's main gun.

As for the cruisers, are 886 m, with a main weapon strong enough to rip through a collector cruiser, and cause strain on a destroyer and destroy it from a distance. Has well has Thanix weapons, and a secondary particle canon, similar to a collector cruiser.

Has for frigates they are 200 m, equipped with extensive guardian lasers, particles weapons, Thanix and Javelin weapons. They are able to make short work of a collector cruiser. Especially with 20 Normandy class frigates having already been produced, has well 5 cruisers incorporating the design and with the idea of adapting the design in a dreadnought.

By using Sovereign's troop's weapons recognition system, the citadel essence transfer mechanisms and the prothean beacons. The Alliance combines these devices to form a human recognition system which was applied in all alliance technologies, preventing unfriendly species to use alliance tech by sensing their essence.

If a hostile race attempted to use alliance tech, it would either self-destruct or simply shut down, depending on how important it was to keep it from unfriendly ends.

2152: The reapers arrive into the Sol system through dark space.

Since alliance dreadnoughts are able to take on 3 capital ships, with 1 cruiser having the advantage over a destroyer, and 6 being able to cause damage on a capital ship. While one fighters squadron was enough to disable a destroyer while 2 frigate could do the same, with difficulty, at close range.

Because of this the invaders take heavy casualties, but their overwhelming numbers force the Alliance forces to gather and retreat. While the reapers take the citadel and begin the siege of Earth and other colonies, which proves difficult with the planetary mass accelerators canons and pulse weapons protecting urban centers from direct assault from a reaper, not to mentions the underground fortress built the rachni provide good refuge from the reaper's bigger ground forces, which were bred through the cloning of the galaxy's races to be turned into husks.

They are also taken off guard by the alliance's technique to control husks, and in some cases, reapers completely breaking several of their lines.

Despite of this they slowly progress has hundreds of thousands of them are able to overwhelm this defenses and are even able after 8 months to override the Alliance made relays, allowing for safe passage amongst them. Has the alliance fleet is slowly reduced to a fragment of its former self, with only 8 dreadnoughts and 12 carriers remaining.

2153: The Alliance discovers, through studies they had made of the citadel that the crucible's design was made to incorporate the catalyst and use the citadel has a conduit for the energy released which would be amplified by the Citadel. Unfortunately the Catalyst wasn't reinstalled by the reapers on the citadel, and it was seen that the energy released would also eliminate synthetics.

It was decided for a final offensive on Earth to capture the Citadel, were then several AIs would enter the catalyst's mainframe software, integrating themselves into the citadel, allowing them to direct the energy. While the crucible was modified to integrate the pulse technology of the leviathan orbs, which would simply allow the energy released by the crucible to disable synthetics, sparing the AIs.

And finally project Camelot was revealed. It was the secret construction of three more crucibles, in order to integrate them directly inside ships. The result was three, 10 km long dreadnoughts, able to take the combined firepower of 12 capital ships, reinforced with Solaris armor. With a main weapon capable of hitting a target from across a solar system. With 180 Thanix canons, 90 on each side, capable of disabling a capital ship. Has well has guardian lasers, particle beams, thanix missiles, javelin launchers and the pulse weapons from leviathan.

These ships were built with rachni help, making them structurally more resistant to stress, and had been upgraded with state of the art stealth technology.

Each of them was escorted with a fleet of stealth frigates, cruisers, carriers, fighters, bombers and dreadnoughts (the first stealth fleet), amongst them the first Normandy class dreadnought amongst them.

This fleet attacks Sol, with the remaining alliance forces reinforcing the Camelot fleet, after the first stealth attacks from Camelot hit the reaper fleet. The reapers were surprised to see the super dreadnoughts, with only one of them be able to destroy 80 capital ships, forcing the reapers to call for the majority of the reaper fleet to overwhelm the alliance. By the time they arrived the alliance had achieved orbital dominance, and preparing itself for the reinforcements, who came in endless stream of ships through the Sol relay.

During the battle against the reinforcements the rachni and small raloi fleet, came to the Alliance's help. Buying more time for the ground forces to reach the conduit the reapers had built to the citadel. During this defense one of the super dreadnoughts was neutralized.

A strike team managed to reach the conduit and entered the citadel were it was opened, the crucible installed and the AIs entered the mainframe of the catalyst, and started the energy build up.

When the machines saw what was happening those who could retreated back into the Alpha relay to dark space, and deactivated it seconds before the crucible fired.

The crucible fired, a white energy field neutralizing all the reapers still on Sol, then shot a white beam to the Charon relay, which transmitted the energy to the rest of the relays active in Alliance space, deactivating them, although not affecting the inactive ones which the reapers had deactivated, purging alliance space from the invaders deactivating them, and all of their technology.

The Alliance fleet then brought the Citadel to the Alpha relay; they then reactivated it and went through with it. They found themselves in dark space were the remaining hundreds massive sentient starships remained.

They reactivated the citadel, but Harbinger used the dark space relay to connect to the second Alpha relay, in the Bahak system. He then took the catalyst with several other reapers and fled before the Crucible fired, incapacitating the rest of the Catalyst's fleet. The Alliance estimated that 180 and 126 managed to escape.

When they fled to Bahak, they encountered a fleet of Batarian ships that attacked them, they were easily fended off. The last of the catalyst's fleet then dismantled the second Alpha Relay to prevent per suit, then fled in smaller groups across the galaxy.

The Batarian Hegemony classified the whole incident in order to prevent the council from being aware of such technology.

The war had ended, with billions of lives, most of their navy in shambles and most of their cities and colonies damaged, humanity focused on rebuilding. While keeping an watchful eye for the reaper remnants.

Without releasing that others had been watching they're struggle, and know knew that their time had come.

2162: First contact.

…

Chapter 3

Rebirth and Reclamation

SSV Normandy SR3

Commander Dasha Aleksei watched closely the stars through windows of the piloting cockpit, she was wondering what could be hiding in each of them. And this mission didn't exactly make that question comforting.

She remembered all too well the reaper war, she was a girl from Moscow but despite her name she was born from a Russian father, while her mother had been from Gabon, and her grandmother had been from India. So she liked to consider herself a child of different cultures, which had become more and more common since the citadel had begun to be colonized more than a century before.

She joined the Alliance navy at 21, after she took a course in art, feeling that she needed to contribute for the coming invasion. She had been a lieutenant aboard the frigate SSV Hong Kong and was 25 when the reapers came; she remembered the never ending flow of the metallic squid like machines pouring through the relays.

She had fought in the final battles of Earth and dark space, she remembered the having sung with her comrades, has the white light envelope the machines and rendered them inert. Despite having only lasted for one year, it was the most devastating conflict ever faced.

The Alliance had symbolically made London (the place of the final battle) the residence of its parliament, right next to the conduit to the citadel. A lot people felt it was more appropriate it to be on Earth rather than the Citadel.

Plus the Alliance only had 226 ships left, 6 dreadnoughts (one of them was geth, the other was the first Normandy class dreadnought the Aegaleus, 2 carriers and only one of the three super dreadnoughts had survived the conflict, the Rhine.

With the threat of the reaper remnants being in unknown regions of the galaxy, the alliance had decided to focus on rebuilding both its infrastructure and fleet, and to salvage the reapers. Task force Aurora, know the main group in charge of studying and salvaging the reapers, had done the same thing with them has what had be done with Sovereign, they had extracted their central processors and downloaded them into virtual prisons, the vessels were drained from any genetic material (which was conserved) and the minds of the billions in each downloaded into virtual safes.

The Rhine, and several other ships, were under refit. The Alliance had been studying the combined power amplification capability of the citadel and the crucible in order to apply them both in in the economic sector has well has ships.

And several new ships were being built, with a large order of Normandy classes and three super dreadnoughts under construction which despite the difficulties was going much faster with the help of the Geth and other alliance AIs, even so it would still take several decades for the fleet to reach its pre-war size.

Plus all the planetary mass accelerators canons had been destroyed during the war, so a lot of resources had to be diverted to build more, with the first one being built on the moon.

But until then the Alliance fleet in its current state was the best defense against any threat, although they were forced to remain around mostly in alliance space.

That's why she and her crew were in this mission, the alliance had been using stealth ships to scout the systems where the reapers had inserted programs to prevent activation.

The systems themselves were remote and mostly unmapped and never had any colonies, however the system they had been ordered to scout had been of interest because several reapers had been placed there, despite not being any alliance presence in that area, they then retreated back into alliance space when the crucible was activated but never made to the Alpha relay in time.

Her ship's mission was to discover the reason of their presence in a system without any strategic value.

At least she was proud of her ship and her crew. The Normandy SR1 and SR2 had distinguished themselves in the war against the machines.

The Normandy SR3 was 226m long, its design was a variance of the first two, with a bit of Geth elements. It was equipped with Javelin launchers, Thanix canons, Guardian lasers, ions canon and the first frigate to include pulse canons and spheres. Plus it was the fastest known ship, and despite its size could land on a planet.

Its crew was mostly alliance, so humans, AIs in robotic bodies, with a main one running the ship called James, and geth who would integrate themselves on occasion in the ship's systems boosting its performance.

Has well has a small non-alliance crew of rachni soldiers and brood warriors, and Juloni in robotic bodies, and two raloi a gesture of cooperation between the four peoples through tech and intelligence sharing, although there were only six raloi due to the raloi having barely begun spaceflight; therefore they were carefully introduced to the concept, in order to avoid to a cultural disaster by presenting them with knowledge beyond their capabilities.

"Costa, is the ship good", said Aleksei?

A tall woman with curly hair, looked at her from the pilot chair with a smile "Flying like an eagle captain" she said confidently. "Besides James as detected something unusual."

The virtual blue image of a man wearing a coco hat appeared and said with a British accent: "Yes captain, I've just detected that the mass relay, which should be inactive, is active."

That got a worried look on Aleksey face.

"How long has it been active" she asked?

"I have already measured the radiation emitted from it with the geth, and according to our measurements it must have been active for it was activated first 21 years ."

Both Costa and Aleksey got a surprised look at that.

"It has been active since before the war?" asked a mouth opened Costa.

"Apparently, we have already entered the relay's system and confirmed it was activated from this side by a collector signal" said James. "They may have found something of interest on the other side."

"Unlikely", said Aleksey. "Apparently they simply guarded the relay, almost has if they wanted to make sure something didn't come through it."

"Maybe but it was shut down by the crucible's energy, it appears to have been reactivated 9 months ago."

"Shall we approach it then?" asked Costa.

Aleksey though about it for a minute, measuring the risk. "Brings us close and send a drone through it. And James send a report to the Alliance, tell them what we find and that I recommend the nearest colonies and fleets in a state of alert, just in case", she knew it could be a first contact situation or it could be collectors, reapers, geth, leviathan or breeders, so she wouldn't take chances.

The Normandy approached the relay, but kept itself at a distance. Then opened a hatch and released a drone that flew right into the relay and disappeared, only to find itself in another star system.

Aleksey and Costa watched the images transmitted by the probe.

"Well so far we appear to have two gas giants, one rocky planet and one garden world." said Costa. "Nothing unusual so… Wait" she said alarmed. "The probe is detecting ships signatures. And several installations on the surface of the garden world and two space stations each 5km large."

"Are they someone we know?" asked Aleksey quickly.

"No, the energy signatures don't match anything on record. I distinguish two types of signatures, on the garden world, the stations and of about half of the ships appear to be different from the other ships. So is the design, I see 2 ship designs.

Indeed they could see in the images that there appeared to be two types of ships, on one hand there were those who were colored in a grey tone with green lines, which appeared to be pulsating with energy, these matched the stations' design. Second there was a second group of ships, these were colored brown and were in some cases smaller than the other group.

"How many ships are there?" she asked.

"At least 182, so approximately two fleets." said James.

"Captain" said an ensign behind her. A ship is coming behind us, from the system we just came through with the relay to Alliance space".

"Is it Alliance?"

"No ma'am, it appears to be one of the green vessels from the other side of the stations. It doesn't appears to have detected us."

Aleksey was shocked at this. If the alien ship had come from alliance space it meant that the aliens were probably already aware of the alliance, but then why hadn't they made contact.

"Costa have we received any news from the alliance command" she asked?

"Yes, they want us to attempt contact with the ship."

She didn't like that, not with the fleets on the other side of the relay.

"How about the risk involved? Did they say anything about that?"

"They say that the first and second fleet are ready to defend any colony near here, and are on high alert."

Good she felt a bit easier now. Plus she preferred to have to attempt communication with only one ship, rather than the whole fleet.

"Disengage the stealth systems, let's wait for them and see what they do. And let's get a bit more distance from the relay. By the way call Milo, Una'li and Budon up here, they will likely want to see this

James and Costa proceeded in doing so. The Normandy releasing its accumulated heat, has it flown away from the relay, becoming as visible to scanners has any normal ship.

Meanwhile the three leaders of each races of the crew arrived on the pilot cockpit, Budon was the leader of Juloni he inhabited a metallic humanoid mech, resembling a human male although is camouflage systems were active to appear organic so he appeared human.

Commander Una'li was a raloi female, barely 1,6m tall although her features were avian (like knees bend backwards rather than forwards) she was covered in brown fur, with only the upper part of her head (wish was shaped almost like that of a hoarse) being covered in a yellow plate of ivory, only revealing the eyes. She had two fingers and one thumb, and two digits, one big and one small, on each foot.

Finally elder Milo, he was a brood warrior leading the rachni on board. He was 2, 5 m tall, with purple carapace and was and big bright eyes and several white spots than gave him a colored look. Has for the name Milo, it given to him by the crew since rachni communicated mostly through sound (a lot of them whish couldn't be heard by humans), pheromones and smells. So rachni identified themselves through individual smells and sounds, rather than names (almost like an identity card). So people had to use translators around them, although a few people could understand certain sounds with the proper courses.

"Gentlemen, and lady. I've summoned you here has representatives for each of your respective peoples, has we attempt a first contact.

Budon was the first to answer "We thank you for your consideration commander. I think I speak for everyone when I say it's an honor to represent our peoples to another race"

"Actually we may be dealing with two" said Aleksey with a smile.

Milo emitted a series of screeches and sounds whish the translators interpreted "Are they allies or enemies?"

"We don't know yet, they seem to keep themselves in their respective fleets but they are not fighting each other so they are likely allies." said Aleksey.

"Good" responded Una'li. "So they can be reasoned with. How will we proceed?"

"We will attempt visual communication and send a first contact package detailing the basics of our cultures, but not any strategic information such as our level of technology, or location of worlds. Has well has a series of drawings representing our peaceful intentions.

If that doesn't work we will use light signals, and attempt to use Prothean languages, in case they are aware of them."

"Captain" said James suddenly "11 vessels on the other side of the relay have begun moving towards the relay and the other ship has stopped has if waiting for them, it must have told them of our presence."

"They could be simply nervous or they might be preparing to attack" said Milo.

"Either the case, James bring back the drone. I don't want them to feel threatened by it in case they detect it. And keep the weapons and barriers down but be ready to activate them at any moment just in case, and warn the crew to be ready."

"Very well Captain, barriers and weapons on standby and ready to be activated in a moment's notice". James could activate them in nanoseconds so response time wouldn't be a problem has long has they kept a reasonable distance.

The ships, 6 frigates and 3 cruisers and 2 dreadnoughts entered the system and joined the other frigate.

"Let's begin then" said the captain. "Start transmission of messages to all ships"

"Captain" said a Costa. "Now that the ships are closer I've detected particle weapons on the green ships haul, and matched their energy signatures to the ships found on the Citadel in 2033. And they are a match."

This got a silence from everyone in the room. Aleksey nervously asked: "Are you saying we may have stumbled upon prothean ships."

"Yes, it appears so."

"Then be on alert, and pray to God that, if protheans are piloting those ships, they changed in the last 50 000 years."

…

Bridge of the Imperial dreadnought Valiance

The Avatar of "Protection", and admiral, Lanu wasn't happy about this at all.

Their spy ship had just returned from their first scouting mission into human space since the reapers had come. And to their shock one of the alliance's ships, one of their praised Normandy classes nonetheless, had appeared in their systems, when they entered the solar system leading to the prothean world Naru.

And they had no idea how long the humans had been here, there was the uncomfortable possibility they had discovered Naru, there main staging area for upcoming invasion of alliance space, this could endanger the whole rebirth of the Prothean empire.

"Sir Admiral Prelak is demanding to speak with you." said an ensign.

Lanu was irritated at this, and asked with a strong voice: "The filthy primitive dares demanding to speak to me."

"He seemed under the impression he was the one commanding this fleet."

"Never shall protheans be commanded by primitives, open a channel to the "Driving Wealth"."

A virtual screen activated in front of Lanu, and the face of a Batarian with a highly decorated uniform, which Lanu though has pathetic, a warrior should wear what was better for battle rather than decorate them to satisfy vanity.

"Finally an answer, are all protheans this slow in their duties?" asked a smug Prelak.

"I have no duty towards you or your people batarian." said Lanu with arrogance. "My people have been the strongest race of our cycle ruling over dozens of species, and will continue to be. We do not answer to primitives." he followed mocking by titling is head to the right, a sign in batarian culture that Lanu considered himself superior.

Prelak practically roared is response: "How dare you. Your people are nothing but cowardly children who only survived by hiding. You are weak and we are the supreme race."

"A race that needs us to develop beyond their rivals, where's the strength in requiring another's race help" said an amused Lanu.

"You are the ones who came to us for help. Because you did not feel capable of defeating an inferior two eyed race" he said that last part with a laugh.

"We didn't have the time to do it ourselves, it wasn't a matter of capability" said Lanu, this time irritated. "Let's make clear I am in command. The agreement between our two governments says we will be dealing this campaign, since we have more information about our adversaries. If you don't like it we can always petition your council for help."

Prelak got a big laugh at that. "Really and how exactly would you convince the council to attack a race on your behalf, you a race of conquerors?"

"Your council and its affiliated races seem to be under the impression we were culturally similar to the asari, that we uplifted races and protected them into a galactic community. If we suddenly appeared how hard do you think it would be to make them believe what we want about the alliance?"

"We would inform them." said a concerned Prelak.

"Who do you think they would believe the benevolent race from the past, or the slaving race that has been plaguing the galaxy with slaves and piracy?"

Prelak didn't answer that, a clear sign that Lanu had won the argument. "Very well, our ships are yours. Just make sure you honor our arrangement." Then the screen was turned off.

Lanu, simply stood there hand though about how degrading the prothean empire had been to ask theses primitives batarians for help, protheans didn't ask for help to other races they demanded it. And those who refused were destroyed; unfortunately they were forced to ask it this time if they were to become the dominant species of this cycle. They had risked too much to risk everything in a matter of pride.

Lanu remembered well the history of their people, every prothean knew. Their ancestors had awoken from six the bunkers of six worlds. The bunkers had survived thanks to the actions of **the** fleet that stole the citadel, the machines had deviated their forces to intercept the citadel, allowing their ancestors to fake their destruction through neutron bombardments, destroying many of their occupants, and damaging their automated awakening mechanisms, except in the Pumala bunker were a secondary system had been equipped to activate the occupants when the energy wouldn't be able to sustain all the remaining pods.

Has a result the Pumala bunker's occupants had awakened nine hundred years ago, they were only 986 prothean warriors who had survived. They then took the ships they had left and flew to the other bunkers, awakening them.

Only 5689 Protheans had survived in the end. They discreetly observed the current galactic civilization, and knew that they weren't strong enough to conquer the council.

So they decided to discreetly rebuild their civilization, while searching at the same time for citadel, unfortunately its location was unknown since the Prothean fleet had kept the location a secret so indoctrinated servants of the machines wouldn't leek its location.

Rebuilding with so few individuals proved challenging, especially since all of them were warriors, with only a basic knowledge of their own technology, fortunately they easily taught to their children through the knowledge of their beacons. Even so a lot of the protheans culture and technology had been lost, so they weren't able to build ships such has Penumbra Apex, their ancient flagship.

Plus their cities were all equipped with neutron bombs to destroy them, with bunkers under them. Since some feared they had awoken too late to stop the cycle, and so measures were taken in order to prevent the machines of realizing their survival, this slowed considerably the rate of their development.

They had discovered the systems alliance 21 years ago when they had activated this relay, and by that time they were already 10 billion, and their fleet had 10 dreadnoughts, and 668 vessels.

They had already known of the relay a century before but were shocked to see the relay didn't activate due to it being blocked by a program of the machines. Seeing this as a sign of the possible location of the citadel they used their ancestor's data, and managed to activate the relay, discovering the Alliance.

They had accessed the unprotected civilian networks of the alliance, and discovered that the humans had the citadel in orbit around Earth, their homeworld.

It soon became a shock to see that the humans had a fleet larger then combined salarian and turian fleets, and were more advanced than the collector, prothean and asari. Plus they had allied themselves with the rachni, which had survived in both their cycle and this one, and were furious to learn they hadn't exterminated them or at least enslaved them.

This created a bad view amongst protheans about humans, since they had behaved in contradiction to the cosmic imperative, the sacred law of the protheans, which claimed that the strongest rule the weak, for the good of all.

The humans' actions of saving the rachni, Juloni and raloi and allowing them independence, had been a complete insult to the protheans and for them a sign of weakness. Also accepting synthetics as citizens was bordering on stupidity. It had been decided the humans would be their first conquest.

But they didn't have the numbers or the industry to do so. So they decided to do what they considered a necessary violation of their principles, they would ally themselves with another species.

The problem was wish species had the resources necessary, and who would be willing to go to war. It also had to be one whom they could control or at least be predictable, in order to prevent a betrayal.

It was decided it would be the batarians, despite being one of the council's minor race, they had the industry necessary to sustain a war. And despite only having 2 dreadnoughts and 185 vessels they were the largest military they could afford to reveal themselves to, since they couldn't afford to contact the council races.

They secretly contacted the batarian Hegemony, and presented the humans and their alliance has a future threat to their expansion in the traverse.

In exchange for their help the protheans promised them some advancement in prothean technology, a few of the Alliance worlds, billions of slaves of those worlds, and a Batarian presence on the Citadel.

The Hegemony seeing an opportunity for both expanding their territory and advancing beyond the council, accepted the offer. And provided resources to sustain the protheans, unfortunately due to the Hegemony's reliance on slave labor they were prone to information leeks, so to prevent this the Hegemony began taking the newborns of batarian slaves and take them to planets the protheans had presented to them to make a slave force completely isolated and ignorant from the hegemony or the galactic community, in order to prevent leeks to the council.

This measure would delay the invasion for several decades, but however would ensure they had a work force of billions. Unfortunately the reapers arrived into alliance space, 10 years ago, before the invasion could start. Forcing them to destroy their surface cities on worlds close to Naru, and activate the bunkers, to avoid that the machines detected them.

Unfortunately they detected the relay they had activated to alliance space, and detected an ftl jump from one of their ships.

Although fortunately they were unable to identify the ship and so simply guarded the relay, probably deciding to investigate after the war. Even so the prothean imperial council had expected the humans to lose the conflict, and so they destroyed all their cities in every world and prepared for the next cycle.

And went into hibernation, but left drones has watch for when the danger passed. For a full year the machines simply guarded the relay, making occasional patrols near Naru, then one day they suddenly retreated into alliance space. A few hours later a beam of white energy struck the Naru relay which then, released a similar beam to another relay while releasing a wave of the same white energy that swept through the Naru system deactivating the drones and every prothean technology it encountered, the VI's were forced to awaken the dormant populations to prevent the life pods from failing.

More shocking is that it continued into the Hegemony's space, deactivating every relay it touched, the batarians were only able to stop it by deactivating a relay, which received the energy but was unable to send it, which the protheans had showed them how, but not before disabling most of their fleet.

Both the Hegemony and the empire were forced to make full reboots on their systems, weapons and ships, to get them working again. Not to mention there was a lot of concern about what could have done such a thing.

They then proceeded to reopen their relays, which turned to be more difficult than reactivate their own tech.

All this took nine years, they only managed to open the Naru relay a month ago, and a decided to gather the fleets, with the batarians, here for an invasion if the scouting parties confirmed no machine presence, and a weakened alliance.

Lanu despised the batarians, despite some protheans though the batarians had a way of thinking close to the protheans' own.

Both had 4 eyes, a sign for both peoples of superiority since they considered 2 eyed races to be less intelligent. And both saw themselves has the strongest, with an emphasis on the strong ruling the weak.

But while the protheans saw this has the strongest species ruling others, the batarians applied into a caste system, putting others of their people into positions of servitude, how degrading it such a behavior was for the protheans. Such behavior was only proper on other species, not on one's own.

Even so Lanu knew it was only temporary, the batarians would become part of the empire. Although Lanu, and is leaders, were pretty sure the batarians were planning the same on them. One other reason to keep one eye on them.

"Admiral" said Glory the ship's VI has he appeared in a green hologram beside him. "We are nearing the human ship; they are transmitting an information package"

So they are attempting contact though Lanu. "What kind of information?"

A screen appeared showing human cities, works of art, monuments and groups of humans from different regions of Earth waving hands in a friendly manner. Then it switched, to a series of drawings showing two humanoid figures, each with a star above them, reaching out to each other until finally holding hands.

Another screen light up with Prelak again.

"It appears the primitives want us to be friends" he said in a mocking voice.

For once Lanu shared the sentiment, "Another sign of their weakness." He then turned and touched a beacon behind them, accessing the information the scouting vessel had transmitted to him, and the imperial senate, apparently the humans had managed to activate the crucible and somehow deactivate the machines, but their forces had taken a heavy toll. He knew the imperial senate was reviewing this information through their own beacon, sharing information between them in a matter of seconds.

After a few seconds he received are orders. He was to destroy or capture the vessel, and then invade the nearest systems in a devastating surprise attack, since now they outnumbered the alliance six to one.

"Admiral" said Glory. "A visual transmission is being sent to all ships."

"Show me, but do not transmit." he wanted to see his adversary.

A separate screen appeared revealing a human female in uniform, her skin was the color of bronze, she appeared tall, her hair was long and brunette and reached her shoulders, and she had a serious look, not a hostile one but one which revealed prudence and respect.

"Greetings" she said in her native language, with what appeared to be an electronic voice repeating the same in prothean.

"My name is Dasha Aleksey, commander of the vessel Normandy; I greet you on behalf of humanity and offer you our friendship. We hope to establish a dialogue between our 2 peoples."

Lanu almost smiled at that, how naïve these people were. It was time to show them how the universe really worked.

He looked at Glory, "Order our frigates to pursue and attempt to disarm the vessel, then jump our dreadnoughts and cruisers to the relay to Alliance space to block their escape. And order the rest of the fleet to move out through the Naru relay and order them to commence the invasion."

"Very well admiral, for the empire."

The entire bridge exclaimed: "For the empire."

…

"Commander" said a nervous Costa. "The frigates appear to be heading towards us, while the 2 dreadnoughts and 3 cruisers appear to have jumped."

Aleksey was nervous herself, this didn't seem good the aliens had completely been silent the whole time they were transmitting, no attempt at responding was ever made.

"Let's not risk it then prepare to jump back to the relay and return to alliance space."

"I detect weapons fire." said rapidly James "Raising shields."

The batarian and protheans closed the distance between them and fired their mass accelerator weapons, which impacted on Normandy's mass effect field. The batarians then used their guardian lasers while the protheans used their particle beams, bypassing the mass effect shields and impacting on the Silaris armor.

"Impact" said Costa. "The kinetic weapons appear to have done a little drain on our barriers; however the particle beams and lasers they are using are bypassing or shields."

"How bad is it," she asked?

"For now the armor is holding."

"We should return fire." said Milo.

"Agreed, fire our guardian lasers, particle beams and pulse canons, but attempt only to disable them. I don't want to do them more harm if we can avoid it, in case this turns out to be a misunderstanding, then jump when we can."

The Normandy responded, opening fire with its guardian lasers and particle canons. Disabling two batarians ships in its first salvo and damaging a prothean frigate. It then used its pulse canons which disabled another prothean vessel rendering it completely inert in space.

Before the remaining frigates could respond the Normandy had already fled beyond their firing range, has its speed had been superior. It then flew into ftl, back to the system with the relay back to alliance space, only to find it, a few minutes later, blocked by 3 cruisers and 2 dreadnoughts.

"So that's where they went." said Aleksey to the relay. "They want to make sure we don't escape."

The hologram of James appeared. "And now I'm detecting several fleets coming through the other relay, too many just to intercept us. Commander it appears to be a full scale invasion."

Aleksey was getting desperate, she was trapped with her crew between two fleets, and she couldn't believe this could be the beginning of another war. She had to find a solution quickly.

"Open a channel to the two dreadnoughts, maybe they will answer now that they have us trapped."

"Very well commander", said a concerned Costa.

A visual transmission was established: "Aliens vessels you have attacked our ship without provocation while we presented you the end of peace. Give us an explanation and safe passage to our territory, and this may be considered an unfortunate incident."

Two screens appeared both showing creatures with four eye creatures. One was green scaly using an armor which reminded her of a samurai, she recognized it as prothean, due to historical documents.

The other however was completely unknown to her, he had sharp teeth, and brownish and yellowish fur, and pointy teeth. He wore a much decorated brown uniform with several medals on it.

"I am admiral and avatar of Protection, Lanu leader of this fleet" said the prothean.

"And I am admiral Prelak representative of the Batarian Hegemony, and commander of the mighty batarian forces you see before you."

So the aliens were called batarians she thought. "We have no quarrel with any of your peoples, why have you attacked us?"

"Pathetic" thought Lanu asking why they are attacking.

"Why does the river drags everything it catches? Why does a storm sweep everything in its path? Because it's stronger than what surrounds it. We are the strong and you are weak.

Your actions prove it, accepting races into your fold while letting each rule themselves brings disorder, and the machines you have so blindly accepted into you society. Such peace will not last, eventually they will turn on you."

Aleksey was shocked, she knew of some of the protheans history but she hadn't expected them to be like this. "For such an advanced people to adhere to such barbarism and narrow thinking is degrading." She then looked to the batarian. "And you what are your people in this for?"

Prelak smiled. "We simply are looking forward to gain the worlds which are rightfully ours, the ones you have in the traverse."

Aleksey was shocked at this. "What? These worlds never had any recent alien presence; we were the first to colonize them in millennia."

"Doesn't matter human, the traverse rightfully belongs to the hegemony and we demand what is ours. And billions of your people has tribute to us, to serve has our slaves, us the supreme race."

"A supreme race from which we disabled 3 ships easily."

Prelak looked that he was about to scream however Lanu answered responded. "What you think of us or the batarian's incompetence is of no concern to us."

"How dare you-…" started Prelak before being silenced by a look from Lanu. Aleksey detected the tension between the two, there appeared to be some tension between the two. Maybe it applied to both races. "This alliance didn't appear to be solid", was what went through her head.

Lanu continued "You will surrender your ship and be processed has our prisoners, you have one minute to comply."

She turned off the screen. "Can we make a run for it?" she asked Costa.

"Doubtful, we don't know how strong their kinetic weapons are, and we would have to fly close to them, at the range of their particle beams and lasers."

She mused about it for a few seconds then she decided: "Prepare the Arrow maneuver."

Costa was shocked at this. "Commander there is a very slight chance it will work with the damage we have already taken, and if we succeed it will be narrow."

"I know that Costa, but we can't allow this ship to fall into their hands. James starts charging the pulse spheres."

"Very well commander." The spheres will take approximately one minute to charge."

The Normandy opened six ports along its bow, allowing for white spheres almost liquid like to appear, they then started to glow.

Meanwhile on the Valiant, Glory appeared near Lanu. "I'm detecting an energy build up from the human ship."

Luna blinked in surprise. "What are they doing?"

"Perhaps it's a self-destruct mechanism? No wait, they are moving at a great speed towards us."

Indeed the Normandy suddenly rushed into the fleet, heading for the middle of it, has if jumping right to battle.

"Neutralize them quickly," barked Lanu.

The cruisers opened fire with their mass accelerator weapons but they had difficulty getting a target lock due to Normandy's speed, making the dreadnoughts unable to so.

It then was in the middle of the ships, then the guardian and particle beams of all ship was used against it, the Normandy managed to shatter a prothean cruiser with its Thanix canon, and split in two a batarian one with its javelins.

"Barriers at nine percent and armor is mostly melted it can't endure much more of this", said an alarmed Costa.

"Are spheres charged" asked Aleksey?

"Yes."

"Activate them now."

The spheres shone and sent an energy field which enveloped the remaining ships, incapacitating them, without opposition the Normandy flew straight through the relay.

One hour later the ships had enough power to communicate between each other.

"I praise you and your incompetent command skills." said Pralek to Lanu.

Lanu didn't feel like arguing, after the Normandy's escape. "It doesn't matter; the invasion will still go forward as planned."

"Yes, the reinforcements have arrived we should have the ships ready to accompany them shortly, then we shall go to victory." He said in a confident tone, he then turned off is screen.

Lanu though about these events, in is pride he had underestimated the humans seeing them has weak, it would not happen again.

…

The Normandy arrived after a day later at Arcturus station, were it would undergo repairs. And as they approached the station Aleksey though about what was to come.

Costa looked at her, "Not even a decade and already another war." she said sadly.

"Makes us think if there will ever find peace." said Milo.

Aleksey looked at the stars and said: "We will, we endured the invasion of an army of massive starships and we will endure this." She said with renewed confidence in her voice.

And with renewed hope they prepared for what was to come.

…

Codex:

The expanded relay network:

A network of more recent mass relays, stretching from the regions surrounding hegemony space, the attican traverse, to the border regions of terminus systems.

Several of the relays were dated to be less 50 000 years old, suggesting they were built shortly after the fall of the prothean's disappearance; this has led to speculation about if the protheans built those relays to migrate for some unknown reason to new regions, leaving their empire behind, although no prothean ruins were ever found in the network.

The network has barely been explored, since most of it is considered too far from council relay to properly do so, another reason even less has be the batarian hegemony have the proximity to do so, although they have taken their time due to the lack of any serious competition in the region.

Closed network:

A network of mass relays, some of them from the expanded network, near hegemony space and the attican traverse, who have been tampered with by the mysterious collectors rendering them completely inactive. In 2082 a fleet of collector, geth and commandeered Facinus vessels entered a relay from the closed network, and only a few of them were witnessed returning in 2086, some of them severally damaged. The collectors and geth then fired on the facinus vessels, with only a few of them escaping.

No explanation for what happened was ever discovered, or about what is in the closed relay was ever discovered, which has given rise too many theories: Some believe the collectors, geth and facinus discovered rich worlds and had agreed to share them in order to make a fleet to overrun council space, but eventually turned on each other. So far it's the most popular theory.

Others think it contains a refuge of protheans and that they attacked the intruders, this one is particularly popular among hanar.

…

Author's note: Okay so what did you think of this chapter so far? Please let me know, and if you have a few suggestions I would love to hear them.

I'm jumping forward again in the timeline.

However I am unsure if I should continue my idea of this story taking place centuries after the mass effect timeline, or would you prefer I keep it in game's timeline?

Please let me know.


	6. Chapter 4 Reunion

Chapter 4

Has as página 12

 **Notes: Finally I've posted a new chapter. I apologize to those of you who have been waiting but I have a lot of work since I began my new semester therefore I had to concentrate on other things. I will see if I can update more frequently, maybe by posting shorter chapters with a big one once in a while.**

 **Anyway hope you enjoy this one even if it's mostly timeline.**

Timeline:

2162: First contact with the batarian hegemony and Prothean Empire.

An alliance scouting mission discovers a forward outpost, were the combined forces of both races are launched in an invasion of Alliance space just a few hours after their discovery.

The Alliance is caught off guard by this coalition, has a result several worlds are conquered in the first weeks, although the defenses of the colonies inflict severe damage on the invaders, the coalition shows no concern for civilian casualties bombing several cities and committing random executions to discourage disorder, they show no concern for the Alliance rules for prisoners of war.

The protheans leave most of the administration of those worlds to the batarians, who enslave the populations and bring in their own slave force, which they had been preparing for already 20 years since before the war, now consisting of young batarians born into slavery. No human slaves are bough to the hegemony's systems, at the insistence of the protheans, not wanting to risk the council discovering a new species in hegemony's space.

The alliance attempts to establish a peace dialogue but all envoy ships are attacked and forced to retreat, further convincing the coalitions of the human's weakness.

The Alliance doesn't have enough ships to defend each world due to its already spread out fleet, has a result they are outnumbered in almost every engagement, with only its superior technology giving them an edge. Has such they request the aid of the rachni, since they didn't suffer has much damage has the alliance in the last war, and due to their amazing construction capabilities had already several ships.

The batarian/prothean coalitions suffers several defeats at the hands of the rachni, giving the alliance time to regroup, their vast numbers overwhelming the combined enemy forces.

They became such a problem the protheans were forced to deliberately gather the bulk of their forces in an empty system in order to draw the bulk of the rachni fleet in. When the fleet arrived the protheans fled while releasing a container of unstable element zero into the sun, causing it to go supernova and wiping out the bulk of their fleet killing hundreds of thousands of rachni and alarming the alliance about the existence of such a method to make a star go supernova. The alliance begins to research methods to counter this by studying the effects of dark energy in stars.

The world Eden Prime is conquered; the protheans establish a significant presence on the world with several survey teams in order to search for something in several continents, although what they are secret is something they keep secret even from the batarians.

2163: The coalition decides to end the stand-still by invading and conquering the world of Turvess, homerwold of the raloi, forcing the raloi fleet to flee and the ground forces to surrender by threatening the raloi with extinction by use of neutron bombardments. The raloi surrender although their fleeing fleets refuse to return to their homerwold, instead rejoining with the alliances in the hopes of liberating their people.

With Turvess under their control the protheans are in an ideal position to strike at Earth. They plan to bypass the handful of systems leading to Sol, and with the bulk of the Alliance forces in the front lines they consider the Alliance won't be able to call reinforcements in time.

The coalitions deploys the bulk of their forces from the raloi homerwold and go straight to Sol, when they arrive they directly attack and destroy the mass accelerator canon on the moon has well has its orbiting shipyards, although to the prothean's surprise, it had very few ships.

Only to find that the alliance had anticipated this strategy and had deliberately allowed the attack so the coalition would commit most of its forces to it.

Indeed in secret, the Alliance had built two mass accelerators canons, one on Europa (one of Jupiter's moons), and one on Pluto, and had managed to refit the Rhine and completed a new super dreadnought, called Amazon, both had been upgraded with the Citadel's systems allowing them to generate significantly more energy, allowing for a wider range for weapons, and shields wish could withstand the firepower of 12 capital ships.

Both canons fire on the unsuspecting batarian and prothean ships annihilating several of them and even dreadnoughts with one shot. And before they can respond the two super dreadnoughts, accompanied by a small stealth fleet emerged and finished off what remains of the alien fleet.

The alliance then immediately rejoined the raloi fleet, and what remains of the rachni fleet and launch the liberation of Turvess, catching the protheans and batarians by surprise, with the raloi ground forces assisting, forcing the coalition to flee.

With this victory the alliance goes on the offensive, the protheans and batarians are pushed back, and are unable to effectively fight the Rhine and Amazon has a result they are forced to abandon several worlds, wish leads to a rebellion on the remaining occupied alliance worlds from both the human and batarians slaves, leading to quick liberations, and a retreating prothean and batarian fleet.

The remnants of the batarian navy retreat back to hegemony space, fearing a rebellion could spread to their own systems, if word of the rebellion spreads out, severing their contacts with the Prothean Empire.

Without allies and having lost most of its fleet, the protheans offer a cease fire.

Not wanting to prolong the war, since it could take decades, and didn't have the resources to occupy all the planets of the prothean empire, the alliance and its allies agree although they demand reparations, and the hand over off protheans commanders to be tried for war crimes, although the latter was impossible due to protheans having executed the commanders for failure in their duties, and refuse to give the alliance the location of hegemony space, in fear they would contact the council.

A border is established in which neither the Alliance, nor the prothean empire are allowed to pass unless given permission by the other under threat of conflict.

Although there is still concern about the protheans wanting to reclaim what they consider to be their galaxy since they call the conflict the first prothean human war, implying they are expecting a second conflict, has a result military production is given more funding.

The batarian slaves are taken in as refuges until they can start their own government, in total six million batarians were liberated and educated in order to one day form their own civilization.

Task force Aurora, the main intelligence and technological specialist agency of the Alliance, is assigned to investigate the colony on Eden prime, since the colonists had informed the Alliance that during the occupation the protheans had been scouring the planet as if looking for something.

2168: The raloi make their first dreadnought, and begin a big wave of colonization, colonizing six new worlds, provided by the Alliance and rachni, their level of technology is comparable to the Alliance's 2050teens level.

2175: The Batarian Hegemony decides to secretly augment its military in fear of one day the alliance discovering their territory and start retaliation.

2180: The prothean empire starts the production of more vessels. Stealth alliance frigates detect this and reports to the Alliance, which accelerates their own

2182: Aurora discovers a prothean bunker on Eden prime, with over five thousand protheans in cryogenic hibernation, it is decided to supply power to the dwindling energy reserves in the pods and not to open them before knowing what was so special about this particular bunker for the protheans to commit thousands of their specialists to finding it.

Alliance forces are at 20 fleets, 22 dreadnoughts, 16 carriers and still 2 super dreadnoughts, with the Normandy class vessels being more and more common.

2185: The migrant fleet conclave determines that the aging equipment and the lack of resources will make them unable to replace their ships, a debate is put forward of whether to attempt colonization of a new world, pursuing the same course, or attempt to retake Rannoch.

2186: The quarians develop a countermeasure against the Geth, devices that when used against the geth overflows their systems with junk data, essentially neutralizing them like a flashbang grenade.

Encouraged by this the admiralty board decides, in a vote of three against two, to launch an offensive against the geth. The invasion starts and in the few days several geth fleets are completely annihilated.

Unable to respond to such a weapon and not knowing how to develop a countermeasure the geth search for the exiled heretics.

They discover a hidden heretic base in the terminus systems, and discover through infiltration of their network that the heretics had once planned to unleash a virus on the true geth, in order to hack them, but had failed for some reason.

Feeling betrayed that their brethren were willing to usurp their very own free will, they attack. Forcing the heretics to flee and gaining access to their reaper code, they deem the code has too dangerous to upgrade themselves with it, since it could be a way for the old machines to hack them.

Instead they map and study it and are able to develop a purely geth program to upgrade each unit to true AIs status, essentially becoming immune to the quarian countermeasures.

On the offensive once more, the geth inflict severe casualties on the quarians destroying thousands of their ships. Seeing no way to win, and having lost too many people and resources, the quarians retreat.

Having suffered too much damage the quarians go, in desperation, to the council to petition their aid in fighting the geth or at the very least for a world in which to settle, since it would take a monumental effort for them to colonize a planet on their own.

Unfortunately both the galactic community and the council are angered that the quarian broke their treaty with the council to avoid provoking the geth, and in the process had forced the geth into upgrading themselves into true AI, plus they were also displeased they had violated the treaty of Farixen by converting their liveships into dreadnoughts.

The council decides to punish the quarians, but they were unsure how, since the quarians had been self-sufficient for almost three centuries and therefore economic or political sanction wouldn't affect them. Plus the quarians defended the fact they converted their liveships into dreadnoughts since they weren't a council affiliated race and were therefore unbound by citadel laws.

The council responds by saying that if they weren't susceptible to citadel law then they didn't belong in council space. They deny the quarians the aid they requested, and make it illegal for the migrant fleet to enter Citadel space. The quarians are shocked at this, some of the quarians representatives even fall in the council chambers floor, realizing that being banished from council space will mean no more save ports for them to resupply, or leave their pilgrims, or save space for them to travel. The quarian representatives even begged the council for client race status for the Asari republics, Turian hierarchy, or Salarian Union, but they were denied.

The Quarians stormed out accusing the council of genocide, and the migrant fleet left citadel space, forced to wonder the unstable regions of the attican traverse and terminus systems.

2188: Knowing they wouldn't survive another generation, the Quarians decide to use several of their ships to find a suitable planet where to settle. They are unable to do so but a scouting ship returning from the nemean abyss, the most distant region of the terminus systems from council space, informs the fleet they discovered a barren uncharted planet rich in element zero, beyond a nebula surrounding the relay leading to this world.

Further study from the fleet reveals the planet to be lifeless but within the life zone of the star system, therefore a good possibility for terraforming.

The conclave and admiralty board are hesitant to terraform the planet, since terraforming was a long and expensive enterprise, the reason why all races preferred to settle garden worlds. However they no longer could afford to look for one so it is decided to terraform the world.

Air production installation are built and thousands of ships land to serve has habitations and installation for growing plants transferred from the liveships to augment food and air production, and so they could be planted on the soil once the atmosphere turns breathable. Even so several of the ships depart to look for more resources.

The world is called Lonnoch, meaning "protective garden".

2196: Sightings of strange alien vessels in the terminus systems matching ancient rachni ships are reported; the citadel council sends ships to investigate but doesn't find any evidence of such ships.

2206: Most of the Alliance's infrastructure and economy are restored to pre-war levels, with its navy now comprising of 26 fleets, 46 dreadnoughts, 36 carries and 4 super dreadnoughts, with one of the new ones being geth class and the other Normandy class.

With this restoration the Alliance fells confident enough to restart their own exploration and colonization efforts, although they haven't forgot about the reaper remnants, in order to avoid their notice it is decided to activate their mass relays only after the systems between two relays have been colonize through the use of Alliance relays and conduits, this leads to the discovery of hundreds of worlds out of the relay network.

2218: The quarians manage to establish a breathable atmosphere on the world has well has some basic living structures however the smaller flotillas that leave Lonnoch, are frequently attacked by batarian slavers and terminus factions, some of them are even followed by pirates and asari and SGT vessels attempting to discreetly follow them, the council wishing to know the location of the migrant fleet in order to properly monitor them in case the quarians decide to one day take revenge on the council.

Even so the quarians managed to evade their pursuers' in the Nemean abyss, even so the conclave and the admiralty board decide it is unlikely the flotillas will be able to always evade pursuit and eventually Lonnoch would be discovered.

To avoid this it is decided to fool the galactic community by sending the migrant fleet, this time composed twenty eight thousand ships and two liveships vessels to travel the mass relay network in order to create the impression that the quarians are still nomads and have lost several of their ships, while the rest of the quarian people and ships will remain in Lonnoch. The migrant fleet would also gather resources and return them to Lonnoch after varying intervals of a few years; they would prevent pursuit by going through the nebula.

Due for the quarians selflessness in doing what is necessary for the whole quarian people, several clans volunteer to go with the fleet.

The quarian migrant fleet was upgraded with their most recent new found resources and sent out with over 20 million quarians.

2222: The Alliance's new colonization program bears remarkable fruit with over 28 new garden worlds colonized, bringing the number of alliance worlds up to 62.

The Alliance fleet now consists of 36 fleets, 40 dreadnoughts, 38 carriers and 4 super dreadnoughts with another one under construction.

2224: The quarian migrant fleet discreetly returns to Lonnoch after its six years voyage. The conclave decides to change the pilgrimage, from now on the young adults from the migrant fleet would finish their pilgrimage on Lonnoch in order to see that the quarians have hope for a future by living amongst the people of their developing civilization, while the ones from Lonnoch would finish theirs on the migrant fleet to gain a better understanding of galactic society and understand the hardships of the migrant fleet. This measure is also meant to reinforce the links between the two groups making sure they become well connected.

A quarian mining team discovers ruins of an ancient city and a prothean beacon.

The migrant fleet departs.

2226: The quarians of Lonnoch are able to discover through the study of the prothean ruins and beacon several other cities all over planet has well several intact beacons, ships and even a few ships, and are able to discover the world they are in is the ancient long lost prothean homeworld. The conclave and admiralty board are excited at such a discovery but also worried since such a vast treasure trove of prothean knowledge could lead to several parties to be interested in it.

They also discover a more recent beacon left by the crew of the Penumbra Apex, left there after their battle for the citadel. The penumbra Apex had continued the fight for a few more years after the battle but had been forced to retreat into what had become unknown space and rediscovered the ancient prothean homerworld, they had decided to spend the rest of their final days on their ancestors home while hiding the Apex in unknown star system and left the location of the ship in the beacon, allowing the quarians to discover the ship. It also contained the citadel's location in the sol system, inside the mysterious closed relay network.

Not wanting to risk the council's attention by attempting to activate a closed relay the quarians decide to concentrate on the prothean knowledge they have acquired, seeing they now had the largest prothean treasure trove in the galaxy, deciding to investigate the closed relays only when they are stronger.

2228: Through reverse engineering of the combined citadel and crucible the alliance manages to develop 2 new technologies, first they are able to create enormous element zero cores providing energy to sustain a single city for centuries, and in theory could sustain a space station which could be bigger than the citadel. Second they manage to build 2 km long spires capable of sending energy to other star systems, leading this ability to being applied to alliance ships and the creation of power ships capable of reinforcing other ships with energy.

2229: The migrant fleet returns to Lonnoch and are upgraded with the most recently discovered prothean technology, upgrading their kinetic barriers, canons and guardian lasers to the point they are almost has advanced has salarians ships. New vessels of the same quarian design purely build of the resources found on Lonnoch are also provided, theses one has advanced has salarian ships.

2232: The Alliance fleet now consists of 49 fleets, 4986 vessels, 48 dreadnoughts, 46 carriers, 6 super dreadnoughts and 8 power ships.

Alliance now expands across 82 worlds.

2242: The migrant fleet is given on Lonnoch a few cruisers of quarian design, almost has advanced has asari cruisers and their first real dreadnought the L'inea.

2246: The quarians develop their first particle weapons and apply them to both their ships and marines.

On Tutchanka the constant infighting amongst the Krogan and the strain of the genophage is reducing the population to dangerously low levels. This motivates the Krogan Urdnot Wrex to return and assume control of is clan.

He inputs several reforms, amongst them a safe haven for female clans, even thoses from enemy's clans, to live out of harm's way. Many clans ally with Urdnot in the hopes of stabilizing the population, several clans ally with Urdnot.

However many more see Urdnot Wrex has weakening the race and has a result several clans ally with each other against Urdnot in the hopes of returning to their warring ways, leading to a violent civil war.

The council worried of an emergent Krogan state doesn't interfere with the matter hoping the separatists will take care of the problem for them.

2252: Rumors of the terminus systems begin to reach council space about the migrant fleet. The rumors claim that several pirates and slaver group were destroyed by the migrant fleet while they attempted to attack them. The few survivors of these attacks claimed the migrant fleet had new and upgraded vessels which employed advanced weapons and defenses against the attackers, as a result rumor began to spread that the quarians either had settled a new world, or found a vast cash of prothean knowledge or both.

Not knowing the veracity of these rumors, and with top matriarchs of the asari republics secretly fearing the quarians had discovered a prothean beacon with more knowledge than their own secret beacon, the asari and salarians reinforce their efforts to properly follow the quarians but it proves difficult due to the longer range of the migrant fleet's sensors.

2256: The alliance currently 66fleets, 6682 ships, 69 dreadnoughts 6 super dreadnoughts, 59 carriers, 20 power ships and over 88 worlds.

Seeing the increase of the alliance's influence the prothean imperial senate secretly decides upon a plot to use the citadel council against the alliance. This plot is kept undercover even from their own people.

2258: Opening one of the original relays the Alliance discovers a tropical garden world, filled with ocean and beaches. But the really interesting thing is when the Alliance ships detect the signal and energy signature of a prothean beacon on the world

Intrigued an excavation team land of the planet and begins excavating the beacon, while the recently developed Normandy SR21 is sent to retrieve the beacon.

…

 **Chapter 4**

 **Reunion**

SSV Normandy SR21

Captain David Anderson walked the corridors of the Normandy, admiring is new ship. He was proud to have been entrusted with a Normandy class frigate and the Normandy itself no less, every Normandy before this one had received the most recent advancements and this one was no different.

It was 442 meters long, employed Thanix canons, Javelin, guardian lasers and particle canons has well has spheres allowing it to disable enemy vessels, and had kinetic barriers stronger than a destroyer. But it's really new upgrade was its cloaking tech, the alliance had managed to adapt the technology of a personal cloak to ships and has a result the Normandy was selected to test it, no other ship had one. And still wouldn't before its viability was tested.

He crossed the command center and saw his crew working. Humans, geth and synthetics platforms were each at their post. Unfortunately no rachni, juloni, raloi or batarian yet, since they had been rushed to this mission and didn't pass to pick up they're future colleagues, although Anderson was looking forward to it.

He finally reached the bridge were he smiled when he saw Joker, and Kayden arguing.

"I'm telling you, there's going to be some excitement on this mission, I can feel it." said Joker.

"You're paranoid, this a simple pick up mission were just going in grab the beacon maybe enjoy a bit of sun and then fly back home. Unlikely something more existing than wildlife is going to happen." said a confident looking Kayden.

"Except mister Alenko if the protheans learn of this discovery. In which case, they might attempt to grab it before we take it back home." Said Anderson, making his presence known.

The two men saluted to which Anderson replied a lazy "at ease."

"What is our ETA EDI?"

The computerized voice of the ships artificial intelligence made itself heard. "You're just in time captain, we are about to enter the system in 20 seconds."

"Very good, give me an immediate scan update once we drop out of ftl."

He waited and a few seconds later the blue energy of the mass effect field in front of the ship dissipated, meaning they were now flying on sub light engines. And he saw through the windows a beautiful planet, mostly blue with several spots of green, according to the survey teams a good place for a vacation.

"Scans completed captain one of the surveys ships is down on the planet right next to the beacon, the other one plus the escort cruiser are orbiting around its location above the planet's atmosphere. Everything appears… Wait the mass relay is activating."

"I thought we weren't supposed to have any other ship to assist us." said a dumbstruck Joker.

"We aren't" answered Anderson is voice filled with worry. "Joker, cloak the ship and EDI identify does ships."

"I already have captain, there are six ships and you're not going to believe this but I've compared their design to our historical database and have confirmed that they are batarian design.

Sir we have rediscovered the batarians."

…

Bridge of the cruiser "Seeker of luck"

Captain Ba'lmo Urnag, sat in his captain chair in the center of the command center with a glass of Mystery drink in his hand. Despite being a pretty expensive drink, supposedly made by adept vorcha on an unknown world, he felt like opening it today since today he was a happy Batarian. He had accomplished just a few days ago one of the best business of is life and he felt like celebrating.

Indeed it wasn't every day he had acquired quality slaves for his clients. It was pretty difficult to find good slaves in the Terminus systems; most would simply be simple civilians who would only be used for manual labor, but he had just captured some pretty rare specimens.

He congratulated himself in his great foresight, since he and his men had managed to more or less predict some of the stops the migrant would make.

Now he wasn't fool enough to try and attack the fleet but he could however wait for them to make these stops and hope to acquire some of their people, quarians were pretty difficult to acquire and pretty talented engineers and as such were highly sought after, plus they were considered pretty attractive.

He had waited for several months but all the fleet did was pass by or simply make some necessary purchases on the planets they had predicted, the frustration was finished a few days ago when the fleet dropped a dozen of their young on their pilgrimage on Ilium. All he and his crew had to do after that was simply wait for them to split up and catch them one by one.

After that they left Ilium and left for hegemony space with their precious prisoners. But the real bonus was when they found out a few hours later that one of the quarians was particularly special. He couldn't believe is luck when one of his men had identified a young female quarian has the daughter of one of the migrant fleet's admirals, a quarian princess.

Celebration had erupted had this news, with a quarian admiral's daughter in their procession they could ransom her for a high price.

Ba'lmo smiled at the thought, he knew he would make a small fortune for this job and all in a few days' worth; all he had to do know was reach hegemony space. Not that it would take very long now; they were already in the traverse. Plus they were a small flotilla of 2 cruisers, 4 frigates and one freighter carrying the quarians.

"Captain" said one of the navigators. "I'm detecting ships in orbit above the planet Virmire."

"That was strange", thought Ba'lmo. Virmire was a pretty garden world near the terminus systems, despite its tropical climate, making it excellent for colonization, nobody ever came there. It was too dangerous to gather resources with the varying terminus factions nearby.

"Even the council never dared to colonize Virmire without the terminus' consent, who would be stupid enough to do so now."

"Unknown sir. But they appear to be 2 vessels, a civilian vessel and a dreadnought, orbiting above a second civilian vessel on Virmire's surface. Their design doesn't match any known."

Strange thought Ba'lmo, were theses alien vessels or some new line of ships from a terminus faction?

"Zoom in the one which is on Virmire; let's see why someone would risk coming here."

Several screens, including his personal one where filled with the image of Virmire zooming in until finally they had an aerial view of the vessel, it was landed in a beach, it was a bulky ship with a white hull and there appeared be unknown forms of people and vehicles surrounding it, though they couldn't make out what they were.

"Follow the vehicles, let's see were they are going."

The image focused on the vehicles which went between some canyons filled with shallow water until they reached what appeared to be a dig site with several pieces of machineries surrounding a grey object shining with a green light.

Everyone in the CIC gasped prothean technology. It explained why, however these people were here. They had found an active piece of prothean technology. All of the bridge crew knew this would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams and Ba'lmo knew this was an opportunity they could not pass by.

"Go for the dreadnought, our cruisers will reach firing range keeping themselves out of it's main gun's way while the frigates will go forward and use their maneuverability to avoid it's weapons and disable it."

"What about the civilian ships? asked the helmsman"

"Ignore the one in orbit but do not let the one on the planet take off. They may be carrying our prize."

The coms officer said, "They are hailing us, audio only."

Suddenly they heard over the intercoms: "Hegemony vessels you are ordered to move away from the planet. Failure to comply will be met with force."

Ba'lmo wasn't exactly impressed, "Ignore them and commence the operation."

They all set out to do their respective tasks all with renewed energy.

Ba'lmo smiled; this was turning out to be quite good trip indeed.

…

The batarian ships flew through space approaching the two alliance vessel with the cruisers pointing it's weapons at the attackers and fired a fast velocity slug which impacted one of the cruisers, punching through it'd kinetic barrier's and breaking the cruiser into pieces.

…

"Seeker of luck", bridge

"Ensign what happened?" said urgently Ba'lmo.

"The main weapon on that dreadnought appears to have a bigger range than an asari cruiser and a lot more yield."

"How?" said the navigator. "Only the council has resources and knowledge make such ships."

"It doesn't matter" said an irritated Ba'lmo. "Send in the frigates to bypass it's defenses."

"Captain" said the sensory officers. "Look one of our frigates…"

Has they looked in in the windows they saw a strange vessel appear out of nowhere and fire a blue beam of molten metal that that went right through the frigate melting the hull and cutting the ship it in two, the vessel then escaped behind them."

Ba'lmo couldn't believe is eyes. "Now everything is clear, that ship has a turian design that was a turian vessel, these people are turians."

"But captain" said the ensign. "Although its design appears turian it bear similarities to the strange dreadnought in front of us."

"The turians must be designing a new type of vessel" said the helmsman. "That's why the dreadnought has some traits of this frigate; they must be experimenting with new designs. The two vessels who are attacking us must be prototypes, no wonder they were sent here to get this prothean artifact the hierarchy must have desided to test them.."

"Doesn't matter" barked Ba'lmo. "Attack the frigate and keep us away from the dreadnought.

…

The 4 remaining vessels turned to pursue the Normandy, with the Normandy fleeing the frigates. The frigates approached and fired their guardian lasers at the Normandy, bypassing it's kinetic shield and impacting the hull which absorbed the blasts but still had minimal damage. It then did a sharp turn and fired its particle canons, sending green beam whish cut through one of the frigates separating it in several pieces.

Ba'lmo was pretty irritated he was down to three ships from what he had seen he doubted he could take on these ships with the vessels.

"Retreat" he ordered. "order all ships to retreat. We are going back to hegemony space."

However has soon has the remaining batarian ships prepared to go to ftl the Normandy fired its pulse weapons at the freighter, disabling it, while the three other ships disappeared in blue flashes.

…

Bridge of the Normandy:

"The three enemy combat vessels escaped captain but we managed to disable the freighter. By comparing its design with those I found in the historical database it is likely this is a vessel used for slave transport." said EDI.

"How many troops would be on that ship?" asked Anderson.

"Likely we should expect between 20 and 26 soldiers."

Anderson thought theses were good odds but even he liked to find less confrontational ways we could do so.

"Do you have alternatives to a boarding assault?"

"Yes" said Kayden. "EDI could hack into their systems and remove the atmosphere just enough so that the crew would faint."

"Sounds good to me, EDI?"

"I'm already on it captain."

Within seconds EDI took control of the ship changed the atmosphere to the point the entire crew fell asleep, while the Normandy approached for docking.

…

 **Well I know it was short but I hope you enjoyed it, hopefully I managed to correct some of my previous mistakes let me know what you thought.**

 **By the way I wanted your opinion about what I should do with the turians, do you prefer them to begin has enemies of the alliance or allies? Let me know.**

 **By the way let me know if wish for purely codex chapters in case you need me to explain some things.**

 **Obama69: Yes Shepard is going to be in this story.**

 **LordGhostStriker: The reapers are known to be at least 1 000 000 000 years old, so they at least have more than 20 000 reapers, and probably more since they build more than one in each cycle. Only between 180 and 126 of them managed to escape, the vast majority of them are disabled and being salvaged.**


	7. Chapter 5 A wider galaxy

**Chapter** **5**

 **A** **wider** **galaxy**

The now silent corridors of the freighter were lit with a dim lite revealing the unconscious ship crew lying in its corridors. Then one of the ship's hatch chone, has a flame appeared through the metal cutting through the metal. The flame moved until it formed a square, then the metal fell on the ground revealing six figures who rapidly entered weapons drawn and quickly securing the corridors.

"All clear." said Ashley Williams.

"Confirmed." answered James.

"Very well, EDI do you have any options about where to put the prisoners we find." asked Shepard.

"The escort cruiser New York will soon dock with the ship, they will be able to take the prisoners in their brig, it should be large enough."

"In that case let's prioritize on getting intel, we haven't seen a hegemony ship in decades, this is our chance to learn more about the hegemony's location. EDI, Jacob and Kayden you will go to the bridge and download everything you can from its computers.

Has for me Ashley and James we are going to the cargo hold and free the prisoners."

"Got it Shepard" answered EDI.

"Move out" he said.

The two groups separated in different corridors. Shepard and his team advanced encountering more batarians laying on the floor.

"Do you think they are going to be prisoners, bela?" asked James.

Ashley blushed, "This isn't the time to flirt man, and yes the cargo hold will likely have prisoners, the four eyed bastards enjoy slavery so much they even practice it on their own people."

"At least the refuge from the new batarian republic are pretty sociable, I wonder how they will react when they learn we may discover the location of the batarian homerwold."

"Were here." Said Shepard.

They arrived in front of a door. Shepard touched one of the buttons and the door opened, they entered and a big wide hall big enough to fit hundreds of people revealed itself before their eyes. But despite its size it was nearly empty except for sixteen hooded figures lying on the floor.

Their hands and feet were chained to the floor and they appeared to be wearing environmental suits. The group approached the aliens and activated they're omnitools.

"According to my scans, these people don't appear to be from any species on file." said Ashley.

"Who knows how many species the hegemony been enslaving" said James. "Where do you think they come from?"

"Who knows, hopefully EDI will find the answer in the ship's computer's." answered Shepard.

"Why are they wearing theses suits?" asked Ashley.

"Maybe our atmosphere is toxic to them, or maybe it's a tradition either way we shouldn't remove them until we know more about.

Suddenly EDI voice was heard over the radio.

"Shepard we arrived at the bridge and I just finished downloading the ship's data network."

"What have you found EDI?"

"A lot and you're not going to believe this".

…

2 hours later in the war room

"So an entire civilization composed of different alien species cooperating together?" said Anderson his eyes wide open.

"Yes, much like our own, according to this codex, except…" replied EDI.

"Except, what?"

"Except this citadel council has some laws that may enter in conflict with our own. For example they have laws against artificial intelligence.

"What why" said Ashley?

Apparently they consider AI to be dangerous due to the fact that our guests, the quarians are the race that created the geth. The geth apparently had VI intelligence but began developing sentience which caused the quarians to panic and attempt to exterminate them. The geth drove the quarians off Rannoch, their homerwold, causing the quarians to become a nomadic people without a home.

I should point out that many of our geth crewmen have taken an interest in this now that we have finally discovered their origins."

"Good for them but why didn't the council help the quarians find a new homeworld." asked James.

"Apparently" answered Shepard. "Because they had violated citadel law about making AIs. The council decided to punish them by closing the quarian´s citadel embassy and denied any aid in order to make an example out of them.

"That's disgusting" said Ashley with anger in her eyes. "Even on Earth in the 20th and 21st century the different nations gave sanctuary to refugees of foreign population escaping from crisis, even if they were from rival nations. While this council is willing to risk the existence of an entire people just to prove a point."

"That's not all they did apparently they were the ones who exterminated the rachni," said EDI "and during they're war with a race known as the Krogan, a violent and quick breathing race they developed the genophage a bioweapon virus which makes only one in one thousand Krogan fertility's viable leaving the rest stillborn. This has kept the Krogan in barbaric society unable to recover for centuries."

"God." said Kayden.

"Although in their defense" replied EDI "they appeared to do both of these things in self-defense."

"I can understand their desperation against the Krogan" said Anderson "But keeping a whole people in desperation for centuries is a very serious crime even on earth in the 20th century we learned to solve our differences after the second world war in only a few decades, while this council has kept the Krogan and quarians in this sorry state for centuries.

Even so they seem unlikely to attack us despite the fact that we broke their laws."

"There are two other things captain." said EDI.

"First we finally identified the reptilian race that attacked earth alongside Sovereign, they are called Turians."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Apparently the group that attacked the alliance were members of a terrorist group called facinus, most turians are very respectable of laws if a bit trigger happy about how to apply them. They are unlikely to attack unless we break one of their laws in front of them. So has long has we behave we should be fine."

"And the second thing" asked Kayden?

"The council races society appears to be stagnant compared to ours. Most of their technology hasn't significantly changed in millennia and when it does its mostly due to the discovery of prothean technology.

However the most advance race the asari appear to be so due to a classified prothean beacon on their homerwold thessia."

"Classified, and how do you know about it then" asked James?

"I crossed the codex's star charts with data from the prothean archives which indicated the location of a prothean beacon in a set of unexplored coordinates. I was able to determine the coordinates were on thessia more precisely in the temple of Athame which has apparently been mysteriously receiving government founding, and since the asari have always managed to stay on top with small advancements every century or so. Which is funny since they were the ones which created the council law which claims that all prothean technology should be shared since it belongs to all the galaxy. Penalties for withholding prothean technology are amongst the archest in council space."

"So the asari are breaking one of their own laws they created to keep other species from advancing beyond them." said Ashley with disgust.

"I agree this council seems to be less than perfect" said Anderson "but that doesn't necessarily mean were going to enter a confrontation with them. They appear to use diplomacy more than violence, I suggest we do the same."

"There is another matter worthy of note captain." Said EDI

"What would that be."

"It appears the council races have developed a somewhat mistaken belief about the protheans and their society."

"How so." Said Ashley her curiosity picked.

"They appear to have, mostly under the influence of the asari, developed the belief that the protheans were actually a benevolent species who uplifted other species to join them in a galactic community."

"Well" said Shepard "I wonder how they will react when we tell them the protheans actually enslaved other species and then eliminated their culture in order to replace it with their own."

"We will cross that bridge when we get to it commander", said Anderson. "In the meantime what of guests the quarians."

"They are still unconscious in our cargo bay." Said EDI " Dr Chackwas is tending to them and I have already notified our geth crewman to vacate the cargo bay in case their presence leads to confrontation."

"We should take them to their people." Said Ashley. "It would be a good way to start a diplomatic relationship."

"While I agree with you lieutenant", said Anderson "We don't have the time to go looking for their fleet, alliance command is expecting us with the prothean beacon and every minute we stay outside alliance space one were the prothean empire may learn of our mission and send a ship to intercept us. We must leave this system, we will take quarians with us and figure out what to do with them next."

EDI suddenly spoke.

"Captain I should notify you that I was processing the news channels of the citadel council and something is has happened watch this."

A hologram in the form of view screen suddenly appeared in the terminal showing an asari with the picture of a badly damaged turian ship behind her.

"This is citadel news net I'm Eria Loré, with an urgent news for you. The turian diplomatic ship "Pride of palaven" has been attacked and captured, while on its way to the traverse colony world lumaren. A video transmission has been sent from the ship to all public channels coming from the attackers."

The image suddenly switched an what appeared to be the passenger area of the ship. On the floor were six turians on their knees and with their hands on their heads. Shepard could fear in some of them but also anger and defiance in others. And standing above them were three turians dressed in what appeared to be black battle armor but what caught Shepard's eye was their faces. While the hostages appeared to have face paints of different colors, the attackers all wore black paint in their faces, which gave them the look of four limbed anacondas which was unsettling.

The black faced turian in the middle spoke.

"In the pass we turians were a proud people, we took what we wanted from our lesser client races, and why? Because we are the strongest species in the galaxy, not even the Krogan could resist us. It is his the right of every Turian to take what he pleases, that's what our ancestors did during the unification war fighting for planets that were rightfully theirs. But then the tyrants of palaven decided to impose their tyranny on all free turians eliminating the fighting that made us strong and bringing us under one single weak empire. An empire that is more interested in appeasing their alien overlord of the citadel council than reclaiming the turian people's rightful place amongst the stars has rulers of this galaxy, like the protheans before us.

Brothers and sisters we call upon today to join in restoring the glory days of our ancestors in war. Help put an end to the tyranny of palaven and from the laws of lesser races. Our first target is lumaren, we will arrive the colony in 2 hours and we intend to crash the "Pride of Palaven" and everyone on it at near ftl speed at its capital city. If we see any ship approaching we will detonate a nuclear weapon we have on board.

Our struggle started a century ago, for our forefathers were the facinus of Taetrus, and we are their descendants reborn after a century of hiding, for we are the "Black Talons" .

"Dios mio" said James. "Facinus really? The group which attacked the alliance alongside sovereign, the geth and the collectors."

"EDI" said Anderson. "What is the population of the capital city of lumaren."

"Approximately 2 million souls."

"How far is it?" asked Anderson.

"Approximately one hour and half away."

"Captain" said Ashley. "Are orders are to bring the prothean beacon back to Alliance space."

"Lieutenant, has your grandfather told you about the sovereign war."

"Yes sir."

"And what did he tell you about the facinus he faced"

"He told me they were monster who killed combatants and non-combatants with no remorse and performed atrocities on prisoners."

"Do you think it's fair to let what they did to us be done to others."

"No sir, I don't think any species deserves such horror."

"Than it is decided, EDI tell Joker to plot an intercept course for the "Pride of Palaven" and tell him to cloak the ship, we don't want them detonating that nuke so we will dock with them without noticing. Shepard prepare a boarding party but tell them to use stealth we don't we them detonating that bomb before we deactivate it or using the hostages to protect themselves.

"Yes sir."

"It's time to face an old enemy."

…

 **Sorry it took so long for this new chapter. I know it's short but hopefully it will be enough to satisfy some of your curiosity. Has you have likely already guessed by popular demand I have decided to make the turians allies of humanity. However there will be a short first contact war, would like to see if you can guess with which race it will be.**


	8. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

New friends, old enemies

 **Author's notes: Well here is the next chapter with first official contact between humanity and the turian hierarchy. Plus I'm going to take the opportunity to present a character which hasn't been seen in the games but has been mentioned in mass effect 2 and 3, and she is related to one of our favorite characters. I hope you will like her has intend to give her a significant role in this story.**

The "pride of Palaven" flew through space, its hull full of scorched marks, and a brutal reminder of suddenness of the attack which occurred just a few hours ago. And right in front of the vessel shining in the darkness of space could be seen the turian colony world of Lumaren, towards which the vessel speed away at full speed.

Meanwhile inside the vessel in the passengers cabin six Black Talons kept watch over the 20 hostages sitting on the floor, the hostages were different ambassadors from different turian worlds, their assistants, plus the pilots and surviving members of the security detail which were 8 of them. And amongst these hostage, a young female turian though desperately in a way to save her fellow hostages from theses monsters. Indeed the young Sol Vakarian tried to think of a way to defeat these black faced painted bastards, she tried to think what her brother Garrus would do in this situation.

Garrus had always been a bit hot headed, even going so far has to defie the turian millennia old tradition of following orders, therefore he wasn't considered to be a very good turian by other turians, but Sol didn't care she loved her brother and was proud of him and his job has a Csec investigator. Spirits and other divine beings knew that Garrus wasn't perfect but he always strove to do the right thing and that's why he was a role model for her.

Despite however of Garrus adventurous life, Sol had decided to do more for her people by going into politics, like all Turians she received military training during adolescence and still did on occasion, so like any Turian she could defend herself. However has soon has she was old enough to decide the course of her life, she decided to study law for six years, and after that she applied to work has a clerk in the Turian embassy on Dekuna, the Elcor homerwold. And after just two years she had managed to be promoted to different higher positions in the embassy until she reached the position of assistant to ambassador Cunius, which is why she had received the honor of being in this diplomatic trip.

She suddenly heard ambassador Cunius speak to the captain.

"Once one or two of theses terrorist is called away we and the rest of the prisoners will jump and overpower theses dark plated bastards."

"Agreed" said the Captain.

"With all due respect ambassador" whispered Sol. "That would be suicide, in fact they seem to be expecting that tactic, don't you see they haven't changed position or taken their eyes of us for over 2 hours."

Indeed the Black Talons were looking at the hostages with a fixed intensity; they're eyes fixing them like birds of prey looking for a target to which to strike almost daring them to attempt something. Like all Turians they were aware that all turians received military training and that all turians even unarmed ones were a threat.

"Even so" said the captain, "we must act, we musn't let this ship crash."

"I know that" said Sol. "But if we act like you suggest dozen of us could be killed."

"Yes Sol" said Cunius. "But in war they are casualties, and the stakes are our lives versus the 2 million lives on the planet."

Sol knew that, every turian knew that. Unlike most other species turian were taught from childhood that people were going to die and there was no way to save them all, the mission is what was important, not how many lives were lost in the process. But Sol, unlike most Turians disagreed with this view, like all turians she believed the mission should come first, but if an option that spared lifes appeared she believed it had to be taken.

Most Turians would call her a coward for thinking like that, except for her family and ambassador Cunius who knew her well, they knew she was anything but a coward, she simply valued life, a trait she acquired because of her fascination for alien species another thing she differed from most turians.

It saddened her that most of her kind had so little interest in other alien culture, turians tended to have a very Colonial attitude towards other species, apparently one of the things this Black Talons based their doctrine upon, and therefore they didn't see other race's traditions has worth learning, in fact if the hierarchy didn't lose more than what they would gain, they would have tried to conquer the citadel races long ago and that saddened her. She believed that turians instead should look forward to work working with other species out of friendship rather than necessity. In her opinion in fact the hierarchy should free its client races rather than dominate them.

Even so she knew that ambassador Cunius was right, it was the lives of 20 people versus the lives of 2 million. There was no question about what had to be done. She wasn't a coward and she would fight to protect her people.

"Yes ambassador I know. I am with you ready for whatever you need me."

He smiled has his mandibles twitched. "I know Sol we will do what we need to for the hierarchy."

"For Lumaren." she corrected.

Has they prepared for an opportunity for overpower their captors, Sol though about her family. Would she ever see them again? She silently prayed to the spirits or to whatever divine being was watching over all, that some miracle happen that would allow all of them to see their families again.

…

Normandy

"Well there it is" said an excited Joker." The pride of Palaven. "It seems to be in pretty bad shape. Look on the damage on the hull."

Indeed Shepard could see the scorched marks on the ship's hull. Even Anderson seemed shocked. "They must have been really afraid of the hierarchy to attack an unarmed civilian vessel. These black Talons truly have no honor." He said full of disgut in his voice. "EDI what can you tell me?"

"The ship is heavily damage, although it seemed to have been done to disable the vessel and not destroy it. I detect thirty six turian life signs on board the vessel."

"Where are they located?"

"There are twenty six in the passenger lounge, four in the cargo bay, and five spread throughout the ship, and one in the pilot cockpit. The fact there are such a large group in the passenger lounge suggests that most of them are the hostages, although I have no way of distinguishing between them and their captors."

Anderson needed more data before formulating a plan. "Can you tell me were the nuclear device is?"

"Yes, I detect strong levels of radiation in the cargo bay. My guess is the four turians in it are guarding it."

A plan was already in motion inside Anderson's mind. "Here is what we are going to do. Our first objective will be to disable the device. Joker, I want you to dock the Normandy in the underside of the Pride of Palaven, make it so the airlock is locked right under the compartment next to the cargo bay."

Joker smiled. "Yes captain, it will be a piece of cake, captain."

"Next Shepard, you will take Ashley, Kayden and EDI. You will cut through the hull into the compartment. Then you will storm the cargo bay, subdue the hostiles, disable the nuclear device. After that you shall head towards the passenger lounge where you free the hostages."

Shepard nodded in affirmation. "Yes sir."

"I almost most inform you since we shouldn't be making first contact in the first place, you're to keep you're interaction with the hostages to a minimum. Do not divulge anything about us. Just go in, save the hostages and the colony, and get out so we may quickly continue our mission. If and when the Alliance decides that we should make contact with the Turian Hierarchy, then we will divulge more about us. Understood commander?"

"Yes sir, captain."

"Well then, let's go save this people, people."

"Already on it sir." Answered Joker.

And so the Normandy silently and slowly approached the Pride of Palaven. Careful to keep itself out of sight from the windows, it then turned 90 degrees to its right side until it attached it's access hatch to the lower hull of the turian vessel.

Shepard and the rest of his team were already in the access hatch. Shepard quickly ordered EDI and Kayden to cut a hole in the metal of the ship's hull in front of them. It only took them a minute, to cut an opening.

With is pistol in hand, Shepard quickly climbed through the opening into what appeared to be a storage room.

He quickly studied his surroundings, there were several shelves full of spare ship parts, not to mention several crates, but has far has he could see no hostiles.

"All clear. Come on up everybody." They all climbed out of the airlock and into the storage room.

EDI pointed at one of the doors. "Four of the hostiles are right next to that door commander."

Shepard gestured for Kayden and Ashley to place themselves each on one side of the door.

Kayden looked at Shepard with a grenade on his hand. "Stun grenade ready."

"Good. Ashley on my signal open the door. EDI be ready to follow me."

Shepard took readied his pistol. Then he nodded to Ashley to open the door. She suddenly kicked the door, which quickly opened to reveal the four stunned turians, but before they could react Kayden had already thrown the stun grenade. Shepard and his team covered their eyes has they heard a big bang, when they unraveled them they saw the four turians were scratching their eyes.

Shepard knew the effect of the grenade would only last a few short seconds, so he focused himself in gathering has much dark energy has he could, his body glowed has if signaling the effort, then he unleashed all that contained power with his right hand, creating a singularity in front of the four turians. Fortunately for the turians, they were saved by their kinetic barriers, and had already recovered their sight, but Shepard had expected this. Once again he gathered the dark energy into his body, but this time instead of unleashing it, he used to propel himself in the blink of an eye across the room until he collided with the singularity. The collision of the singularity's and the biotic charge's energy caused a sudden but powerful biotic explosion, draining the turian's kinetic barriers and propelling them across the room.

Shepard quickly rushed himself towards two of the turians, while he could see in the corner of his eye that EDI was headed to the other two. One of the turians was knocked out cold, but the other was struggling to reach for his shotgun lying on the ground, but Shepard was to quick. He rushed forward and lunched his knee right into the turian cranial plate, knocking him backwards to join his unconscious comrade on the floor.

Shepard quickly turned to help EDI, but he was surprised to see her standing over the two other turians lying on the floor with a smirk on her face. "It took you 3 seconds to overpower that one turian commander. It only took me 0.5 seconds for me to take care of these two scaled morons."

Shepard smiled. "Not all of us have bodies has strong has yours EDI. Are they…"

"They're alive. I know you like to have minimum casualties when possible Shepard. I advise we restrain them before proceeding further. I'll disarm the nuclear device."

Shepard was joined by Ashley and Kayden, which then proceeded to tying up the turians with restraints. While EDI approached the bomb in the middle of the room, and proceeded to work on it.

Ashley spoke. "Excellent work, we took them out undetected. Four down only a dozen to go."

But Shepard knew this wasn't over. "EDI was the status on the bomb?"

"It is complicated, the bomb seems to be booby trapped but I'm confident I can disarm it withouth triggering it. You however should get going, leave me here I'll join you when I'm done."

"Very well then. Kayden, Ashley, on me."

And they proceeded out of the cargo bay and into the straight corridors of the ship. The ship was a maze of doors and corridors, and the team had to check every room to make sure they wouldn't leave any enemy combatants behind them, which would be able to flank them.

They had just turned one of the corridors when suddenly they saw two armed turians walking towards the other hand of the corridor, their backs turned to them.

Shepard and Ashley slowly and quietly approached them, allowing Shepard to grab one by the mouth and punch him in soft tissue in the back of the skull, while Ashley kicked the other in the knee, which caused the turian to scream, then she finished him off with a quick to the head.

Kayden approached them. "Let's hope nobody heard that."

They suddenly heard the sound of rushing footsteps; they turned and saw three turians appear at the end of the corridors. They're eyes were wide with shock. "Humans?" One of them growled.

The team didn't let their answer wait. They immediately opened fire, draining the shields of one of them, which was suddenly pierced by several high velocity projectiles. However his companions took cover, and did Shepard and his team. Has both sides exchanged fire, Shepard put aside his pistol and instead took out his shotgun. He then launched himself in a biotic charge, quickly crossing the distance between him and the attackers, and colliding with one of them, draining his shields. Shepard was quick to pull the trigger, blasting a hole right in the turians chest, has dark blue blood was thrown across the floor.

Horrified by this, his companion quickly fled to the outer and of the corridor, touched a panel on the wall, automatically closing the door behind him. Most to Sheppard's frustration.

"Crap, he sealed the door. Kayden, you're up, open this door quickly."

"Right on it, Shepard."

Ashley approached. "That dark talon will have warned his friends of hour arrival."

Shepard knew that it was a race now. "Then let's make haste."

…

Sol was reading herself with her fellow hostages when one of the dark talons came rushing in the room towards the one which appeared to be the leader.

"Cravus you're not going to believe this."

The one identifying himself has Cravus quickly told him to calm down. "Slow down soldier were are the others of your squad?"

"They're dead, killed in the lower level, and two others have been neutralized and supposedly our brothers in the cargo bay."

Sol could see Cravus was building up with rage. "What, how did the hierarchy manage to board this ship without us noticing?"

"It wasn't the hierarchy, sir. It was a human boarding party."

The room filled itself with silence then it got filled with angry growls from the black talons who uttered words like "cowards" and "human scum" and "revenge for our forefathers", until they were silenced by Cravus.

"Humans, they must have come with one of their stealth ships then.

So the systems alliance, has finally made its way towards our corner of the galaxy. Well man, the old enemy has come for us, and we will meet them in kind. Remember the sacrifices our forefathers made to exterminate this vermin, the humiliation they suffered at their hands. Make them pay for every drop of Facinus blood they spilled."

He was followed with angry cries of agreement and anticipation, has they all took positions near the entrances.

Sol approached Cunius. "Human. What's a human?"

Cunius looked at her, anticipation filling his eyes. "I don't know but I have a feeling were about to find out. And if they are no friends of theses dark plated bastards that's good enough for me."

…

Kayden finally got the door open, and team proceeded to climbing the stairs to the next level of the ship. Ashley spoke. "By the way commander, nice job back there. You took them down with ease."

"Thank you Ash."

Kayden spoke. "That's the beauty of having biotics. You could have them too if you applied for it at alliance command."

"Thanks but no thanks, I still believe in owning my strengths through my skill with weapons, and not some magical powers. Yes I know it isn't magic but it might has well be."

Shepard smiled. It was true Ashley could have biotic powers if she wished. When it was discovered in the Sovereign war that reapers could upgrade their husks with biotics, the alliance managed to reverse engineered this technology and apply it to human physiology, now any human could become a biotic. This had allowed the alliance to increase its biotic ranks from a few hundred to several thousand, not only that but research into the reaper Banshees, which were asari ardat-yakshi, had allowed significant progress in increasing biotic power.

The result was a vast biotic army with powerful biotics. According to EDI the alliance's size in biotic military members was only surpassed by the asari republics.

Biotics were divided into two groups in the army. Support, which were meant to fight with non-biotic members while strengthening their barriers, and biotic artillery strikes, which were teams of all biotic members meant to work together with devastating biotic power, basically the equivalent to the turian biotic cabal, or an asari commando unit.

"Come on were nearing the passenger's lounge."

They kept moving forward until they reached a large room were they saw the bodies of at least a dozen turians. Six of them were thrown together into a mount, while eight others were lying in a ceremonial manner each next to each other, theses latter ones had dark tattoos on their face plates.

Ashley was discussed, she pointed at the pile of corpses. "These must have been the turian security detail, the dark talons threw them together like trash."

Kayden pointed at the aligned bodies. "And theses must be the dark talons who fell in combat. The security detail put up a good fight."

Shepard agreed. "There is nothing we can do for them. Except to honor them by saving those they were trying to protect."

And with that they moved forward until they reached a large corridor. Shepard knelt besides the corridor, took out a small mirror and pointed it in the corridors direction has discreetly has he could. He then withdrew the mirror.

"Okay there are seven armed turians all of them pointing their weapons covering the different entrances, but only two of them are looking at this one."

"How do you want to proceed?" Asked Ashley.

"Simple, Kayden time for a biotic artillery strike."

…

Sol waited for anticipation for theses unknown warriors to appear, suddenly a big flash of purple light lashed out of one of the corridors and smashed right into one of the dark talons, throwing him across the room right into the ships bulkhead. When the light disappeared in its place stood a being unlike any Sol had ever seen. It was almost has tall has a turian, appeared to be mammalian, had five fingers on it's hands and had some strange fur on it's head which reminded her of batarian fur.

The black talons were quick to fire their weapons, which were blocked by what she guessed was the human's kinetic barrier. All that fire should have been enough to drain the barrier but, most to every turian's surprise, they held with no sign of significantly weakening.

The alien then glowed again, Sol realized he was a biotic, an this time closed his fist and punched the ground with it, unleashing what was the most impressive and powerful biotic nova she had ever seen, throwing the back talons through the air and to the ground with such strength some of them were disarmed.

The black talons were either struggling to get up on their feet, or reaching for their weapons on the ground when Sol heard Cunius shout. "Now take them."

And all the hostages rose up and rushed the dark talons nearest to them, trying to grab their weapons. Sol immediately jumped forward and hit the head of the dark talon facing her, knocking him to the ground only to be overwhelmed by her fellow hostages. She then turned and saw Cunius be thrown to the floor by Cravius, who then took his pistol and prepared to fire. Sol didn't even hesitate, she rushed Cravius, and managed to grab his arm, but suddenly he fired the weapon and hit her arm, throwing her back on the floor. She felt her arm bleeding when Cravius pointed his weapon at her.

"You dare strike me palaven scum." He was about to pull the trigger when suddenly the gun was thrown out of his hand. He looked around him confuse unable to see his mysterious attacker. Suddenly he put his hands around his throat and started doing gargling noises, and after that he was suddenly raised in the air. Suddenly Sol saw the light flinch in front of her has a metal figure uncloaked in frontof her, Sol could see the mech was grabbing Cravius by the throat with only it's right hand, she saw it looked like the human but by the tits on it's torso she guessed she was based on the female variant of the species.

The mech spoke in perfect turian. "No more bloodshed today you monster. You're under arrest."

…

Shepard smiled. "I guess this means you are already done with the bomb?"

"Indeed, plus I took care of the pilot. So this ship isn't going anywhere."

He looked at the injured female turian bleeding on the floor. He knelt, and spoke in turian. "Don't worry you'll be alright." He then took a bit of medigel and put it in the turian's wound.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Shepard remembered Anderson order about non-disclosure, so he smiled. "Hopefully a friend."

They then proceeded to restrain the dark talons. And 15 minutes later they had all of them rounded up and their weapons distributed amongst the hostages. Shepard was speaking with the turian named Cunius. "You're ships will be here in approximately twelve minutes. Do you think you can take care of these dark talons."

"Thank you for your concern commander but we can manage. And you, why won't you reveal more about your people."

"My apologies ambassador, but I'm not authorized to reveal more than our names for security. You'll know more when our government decides to contact yours. Plus were on an urgent mission, we only took this detour to save you."

Cunius nodded his understanding. "I understand, thank you once again Commander Shepard. We will not forget this."

…

Sol watched through the window has she saw the human ship fly off away from the pride of palaven.

"Who owe our lives don't you think?"

She turned to see Cunius behind her. "Yes sir I agree. But right now I'm wondering how is their civilization like."

Cunius smiled. "I see they have revived your curiosity in alien cultures. Well for starters they seem pretty advanced, a normal kinetic barrier would have been drained under so much fire, and yet the one from Sheppard withstood it with little effort, and they apparently have stealth ships in space, something which was considered impossible even by the salarians. And the commander's biotics were pretty impressive, I've never seen such display of biotic power, and I've seen 1000 years old asari matriarchs perform."

Sol agreed but there was something else bothering her. "That doesn't explain how their ship seems to have elements of turian design incorporated in it."

Cunius nodded. "The black talons, or at least their forefathers, appear to have encountered them before. Maybe they got turian technology from them."

Sol though about it. It was a valid hypothesis. "Either way I'm looking forward to meeting them again, plus this medigel they used on me is doing wonders for the pain."

…

Omega

The seeker of luck attached itself to one of the docking ports of Omega. The hatch opened, and Ba'lmo Urnag stormed out with his bodyguards. And quickly sped towards the streets of Omega, he was in free territory so he didn't have to worry with the ambush of any rival gang, especially with his bodyguards near him.

The people on the street quickly got out of his way when he saw that he seemed in a particular foul mood. And by the gods he was.

He could have had a fortune with those quarians, instead he lost some of his bests ships and crew and a cargo vessel. Not to mention his pride had been hurt in having been defeated so easily by thoses turians and their new stealth ship.

But he would have the last laugh, oh yes. The turians might be getting bolder in sending ships near the Terminus systems but then again it wouldn't last long. Not if he had anything to say about it.

He finally reached the club called afterlife. In front of the entrance there was a table with an asari sitting on it, with a Krogan an a turian at her side, probably her bodiguards. She smiled. "Aria doesn't allow weapons in the club sir. Please leave them here."

Normally Ba'lmo would have argued but today he was in a hurry. "Fine, you're lucky I have urgent business with her."

…

Aria stood up in her personal lounge overlooking the club. This club represented the achievements she had made here on Omega. She remembered when she first arrived here, it had been a land of disorder, completely lawless. But then she took over and imposed some semblance of order, it was still the strong praying on the weak but that was just like she like it.

"Mistress" one of her guards, a batarian behind her. "Ba'lmo Urnag is here to see you."

"Show him in."

Ba'lmo stormed right in front of her. "Thank you for seeing me Aria."

"Of course" she said in a confident tone. "I have always time for my fellow lawless."

"This actually concerns all the lawless of Omega, in fact all the terminus systems."

That got her attention. "Go on."

Ba'lmo proceeded to recount all that had happened from capturing the quarians to his attack over Virmire. Has for Aria she listened carefully. "And you say it was the turians who attacked you?"

"Yes, their stealth ship had turian architecture incorporated into it. They're making a push for the traverse and terminus."

That made no sense to Aria, why would the turians be interested in expanding in an area so distant from their territory, it wasn't practical, and the turians were known for being practical. Plus she doubted they would provoke the terminus systems without the support of the council and she knew they wouldn't agree to it, since it would risk uniting the terminus systems, and she and the council had a mutual understanding. She kept the terminus systems in line and in return they turned a blind eye towards her operations.

Maybe the prothean beacon on Virmire was worth the risk for the hierarchy, but she suspected there was something more.

"Didn't you say there were other ships of different designs."

"Yes."

"Were they turian?"

Ba'lmo seemed a bit embarrassed. "Well there design didn't match any known turian ship, but some elements matched the stealth frigate."

Maybe this was a case of mistaken identity then she though. Maybe some new factions, however in that case she needed more data.

"What do you want from me Ba'lmo?"

Ba'lmo hesitated. "I think this is a threat against all the terminus systems. I came to you, to organize a summoning of different factions so we may respond to this threat. The turians must be shown we are not going to sit by idly."

Aria though about it for a moment, then she smiled. "I agree with you Ba'lmo, if someone is getting bold we must put them in their place."

Ba'lmo smiled a pyjak who had just received a fruit. "Thank you queen of omega. May I ask which factions you intend to invite?"

Aria took a sip of her drink then answered. "All of them."

 **Author's note: Well finally a new chapter for this story. Sorry once again that it took so long. But I've been busy with my other stories, and with my exams at the university fortunately they went well. I do hope to try to write theses chapters more frequently. And by the way if any of you are fans of the creature of the black lagoon I've started two stories, and opinions for all my stories are welcome.**

 **Please leave a comment, it's always good to know what people liked or didn't like in the chapters.**

 **And since I'm not sure if I will be able to publish a chapter before then, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.**


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